


The Knights of Sin

by Sunflowereevee



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Aphid Wayhem, Asexual Character, Bisexual Characters, Butterfly Juleka, Chameleon chapter, Champion Characters, Demons, Everyone is redeemable except Gabriel, Family Relationships - Freeform, Gay Characters, Gen, Giving Sabrina the love she needs and Chloe the ass whooping that’s two seasons overdue, Hawk moth is defeated, Hawk moths not finished yet, Lioness Kagami, Nath's dad still sucks, Nathaniel centric, Orca whale Luka, Original Kwamis, Original characters sprinkled in, Peacock Nathaniel, Puns and bad jokes, Supernatural Elements, Team Miraculous vs Raion's pack, Unicorn Rose, Updates slow but faster than the show, Vampire bat sabrina, Vulture Lila, Wayhem the goofball, characters all over the gaybow, evil mosquitoes, love square shenanigans, new superpowers, plenty of other characters get a turn in the spotlight though, super akuma's, the city of Paris adopts Adrien
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-26
Updated: 2019-04-27
Packaged: 2019-05-28 19:35:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 17
Words: 148,020
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15056264
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sunflowereevee/pseuds/Sunflowereevee
Summary: They finally did it, Hawk moth has been defeated and his power stripped away. With summer just beginning the hero's of Paris can enjoy a long deserved break...or not.Thanks to Hawk moth the kwami that form the knights of sin have been released and have been possibly corrupted by their time banished in the dark world. With demon's also coming out of every shadow and preying on people's emotions they're going to be as busy as ever.Taking place exactly three seconds after the end of Feather's up.





	1. Nooroo’s new holder

Chapter one Nooroo’s new wielder 

Okay don’t panic, Fu just entrusted you with finding the new wielder of the butterfly miraculous. Marinette held the box close to her chest and excused herself to her room, once inside the privacy of her room she proceeded to plop to the ground in shock. 

Tikki flew out of her hiding spot in Marinette’s purse “wow Master Fu must really trust you if he gave you the task of finding Nooroo’s new wielder”.

Thanks doctor duh, can always count on you to say what we’re already freaking out about. Marinette rubbed her eyes and fiddled with the box “I don’t even know what kind of wielder he needs” she moans leaning back and remembering too late that the wall wasn’t behind her. 

“Well why don’t you ask him?” Tikki says trying not to giggle at Marinette falling over awkwardly again. 

Marinette sat up and held up the box “can I do that with you still here?” 

“Yup but you can’t transform while already wearing a miraculous”

Marinette stands up and sits on her chair; preparing herself for a bright light show. She’s reminded of the day she met Tikki at the bright light that shot out of the box, although this time it was purple instead of red. 

“uh-hello” a shy voice says once the light had dimmed Marinette smiles and offers a hand for Nooroo to sit on. 

“Nooroo” Tikki cries and the shy kwami lit up in delight. 

“Tikki…wait if you’re here then that means…” he looks back at Marinette “you’re Ladybug” 

Marinette smiles and gives a small wave “the guardian gave me the task of finding your new wielder, so uh what kind of wielder do you like?” 

Nooroo taps his chin in thought “my power is to make champions to help defeat evil, so I need someone who sees the best in others” he says at last. 

Marinette looks over at a picture of her classmates making a humming sound as she thought. “I got it” she yells suddenly standing up so quickly she knocked her chair to the ground. The two kwami stare at her lost as she turns to them with a silly confident smile “Rose Lavillant” she points to the blonde in the photo.

Tikki’s face lights up “good choice Marinette, how do you plan to test her?” 

Marinette turned a little pale “test?” 

Tikki giggles and pats Nooroo on the back “you didn’t realise the first time you met Master Fu he tested you?” Marinette laughs nervously and Tikki shakes her head with a small smile on her face. “Yours was in a busy area with lots of people not paying attention and there was a car acting as a time crunch so you had to devise a plan to help Fu. Just like you would have to do with lucky charm” she explains. 

“Okay so I have to test Rose…right that should be easy” a knock from below makes Marinette yelp and jump three feet in the air. The kwami go to hide right as Alya pokes her head up and grins at her friend.

“Girl come on, I’ve called you like three times we’re going to be late” 

Marinette blinks confused and Alya over dramatically sighs “last day of school” she deadpans and Marionette’s eyes light up. 

“Oh right, right I’ll be right down” she grabs her backpack and throws a few things in it including Nooroo’s box. The second the box shut Nooroo vanished from his hiding spot, his little heart pounding in excitement. 

 

Adrien picked at his shirt, it was hot in the classroom but it wasn’t just the heat as the problem. As always he wore clothes made by his father, head to toe he wore the Gabriel line with a butterfly as the logo. The same logo as Hawk moth, the more he thought about it the more it annoyed him. Not only was his father a freaking super villain but he was the over dramatic and ridiculous about it, secret base hidden in his house, pretending he was at work when he was manipulating someone to steal a miraculous. He tugged at the bottom of the shirt, what about the time his bodyguard had gotten akumantized and threw him off the roof? Had his father given that order? His memory flashed to one morning when he cried to his father about “locking him away in a cocoon” he had made a damn pun and had no idea till now. Now he had to deal with all those looks he got from people on the way here, pity, anger, he didn’t want any of this. 

The sound of fabric ripping makes him look down at his shirt; his nail had gotten hooked on the fabric and sliced right through it. Mrs. Bustier paused on her lecture about summer safety; Adrien felt his cheeks burn under the stares from his classmates. “Sorry uh, worn fabric” he says with an embarrassed chuckle “I’ll just go change”. Without waiting for a reply he jumps out of his seat and runs towards the locker room. 

Adrien opens his locker and pulls out a shirt identical to the one he was wearing; robotically he pulls off the torn one and slides on the new one. The mirror inside his locker shows a boy he had seen all his life but for once he couldn’t muster the super model smile. 

“Why so down kid? You finally beat the bad guy and right before summer break” Plagg says popping out of the crumpled shirt on the floor. He flies up and sits on Adrien’s shoulder “I’m thinking catnaps every afternoon, big cheesy BBQ’s and long night gazing at the stars” he hums leaning back on an imaginary lawn chair. 

“Of course I’m thrilled we beat the bad guy, it just so happens that the bad guy is my father” Adrien snaps harder than he meant to. He casts his eyes to the floor, if he had his cat ears right now they would have flattened against his head. 

“Oh right Papa-illion” Plagg stretches and yawns widely showing off some small fangs. “Well now’s the perfect opportunity to talk to him, not like he can go anywhere in a prison” he hums slipping into his hiding spot.

Adrien looks back at his reflection, he narrows his eyes as he agrees to the idea in his mind “my father owes me an explanation” he slams the locker shut. 

Last class of the day, just a few more minutes and summer would officially begin. Nathaniel spun his pencil though his fingers like a drummer in anticipation, it took almost all his willpower not to glance at the clock every three seconds. Ms. Mendeliev pulled out a bunch of papers from under her desk “as you all should know every year I give a final test to see how much you all have been paying attention”. Nath can’t help but feel like she’s looking directly at him when she said that, wasn’t his fault he sucked in her classes.

Okay it was kind of his fault.

Ms. Mendeliev picks up a roll of duct tape and puts it under her arm, then starts to walk up to the back of the classroom. Nathaniel’s pencil stops mid spin, was she going to use that tape on him? Tape the pencil to his hands so he couldn’t spin it anymore, he had only accidentally thrown it three times….today.

Without warning Ms. Mendeliev crumbles the papers into a ball and uses the tape to keep it together “let’s be honest here, with all the school you’ve missed none of you would do well”. She finishes her ball and spins it on her finger like one would a basketball. “So here’s the deal, if I can throw this into the trash can from here we’ll forget about the test and leave early” she pauses enjoying the wide eyes of excitement. An almost evil smirk on her lips as she winds up then throws the paper ball to the garbage can by her desk at the front. 

The garbage can clangs as the ball lands smack dab into it, Ms. Mendeliev joins in on the screams of excitement. Kim had grabbed Max and was spinning him around in circles, Alya and Marinette were hugging. Nino was jumping up and down and Alix did a back flip before joining the rush out the door. 

 

“Come on bro” Nino calls turning around and running backwards. Adrian didn’t have any trouble keeping up but it seems Nino’s sugar rush still hadn’t worn off from yesterday’s party. 

“Where are we going?” Adrien asked feeling sweat gather at his back, it was way too hot for running. 

They turned to stairs that lead down to the water, “party on the Couffaine boat” Nino cries jumping the last few steps and giving his best superhero landing. His ankle objected to this but he ignored it to concentrate on beating Adrian there. 

“Hey boys” 

Nino screeches to a stop at Alya’s voice causing Adrien to crash into him. They stumble but manage to stay on their feet, Nino gulps at Alya. Her jeans had been exchanged for jean shorts that showed off her very fine legs but her shirt was the same. That smile was planning something.

“Man you guys took forever” Alya’s hands innocently grab the bottom of her shirt, “I was starting to think I’d be waiting till nightfall”.

Nino EXE had stopped working; Alya removes her shirt and chucks it off to the side. Adrien blinks at her orange bikini top underneath, there would be no reason to be wearing that unless…

Suddenly someone grabs the back of their shirts and pours ice down them, the boys yelp and jump around trying to get it out. They turn to find the culprits to be Juleka and Luka giggling at their distress. Both wearing swimsuits, Juleka’s was a dark purple one piece and Luka’s was light and dark blue trunks. Alya nearly falls over laughing at them; Nino shakes the last of the ice out and grins.

“Oh so that’s how you want to play” he says opening his bag, Adrien gasped at the many coloured water balloons inside. Did he seriously have that all day? “Adrien arm yourself” Nino orders grabbing several and pointing at Alya “you’re mine Alya”. Alya laughs and play screams as he fires a water balloon at her, Adrien chuckles and takes aim at the Couffaine’s.

“Wow summer break, I’m so excited” Duusu says as soon as Nath gave the all clear, she flew out to sit on his shoulder. 

“Yeah and we’ll have plenty of free time now” Nathaniel says flipping open his sketchbook to a fresh page. “Although without the constant akuma battles I don’t know what I’ll be drawing” he adds making them both chuckle.

“I’m sure you’ll find something, plants, building, girls you like” she made a cheeky face at the last one. Nathaniel rolled his eyes to cover his faint blush, he opened his mouth to say something but screams cut him off. Duusu zips into her hiding spot while he goes to check it out, he runs to the edge of the wall and peers down into the docks below. 

The scene below is quite the sight; Nino and Alya were pelting each other with water balloons. Rose had appeared with a hose and was likely the one responsible for the scream since she was soaking wet. Marinette gave a sorry not sorry look to her and fired her water gun at Luka, the high pressure blast knocking him over. Rose was dressed in a bikini with a yellow top and a green bottom and Marinette was wearing a two piece that was bright green with a short skirt. “Adrien catch” she cries throwing the model a water gun that was attached to her back, Adrien catches it mid-air and somersaults when he lands. He holds the water gun like a sniper rival and fires at the two more enemies coming into battle, Mylene and Ivan. Ivan acts as a human shield while Mylene opens up a garbage bag full of water balloons. She was dressed in a yellow one piece and he wore black trunks with little skulls on them. 

Marinette takes a hit from Alya and gaps in fake betrayal. She takes aim at her friend leaving her wide open for an attack from Rose.

“I got your back Marinette” Adrien cries jumping into the path of Rose’s shot and using his water gun to deflect the attack. Marinette’s usual behavior around her crush is overwritten by the desire to win, allowing her to lean back to back with him to attack their classmates. 

“Couples team off” Alya yells hiding behind Nino who had found a trash can lid to use as a shield. Mylene and Ivan had no trouble with this; Ivan had his water gun fully loaded and fired a powerful blast at Juleka. Rose dropped her hose in order to run and jump in front of Juleka taking the attack for herself, crying out over dramatically and sending her atop her friend.

Marinette smiled watching the two friends giggle as and get to their feet. If she was unsure about giving Rose the miraculous before she knew for sure it was the right choice now. A cold splash of water to her face brings her attention back to the battle; she shot a fierce look at Nino who was smiling sheepishly. 

“Juleka I thought you were my partner” Luka cried using his gun to protect against the attacks from the two girls. They laughed and soaked him with their icy water. 

“Poor Luka without a partner” Marinette mumbles glancing away from her battle with Alya and Nino.

“Yeah…” Adrien agrees then looks up to see Nathaniel watching them in amusement, perhaps going to use this in a battle scene later. “Nath grab a water gun and help Luka out” he calls up to him.

Suddenly it’s so quiet all that can be heard is water dripping off their clothes, Adrien darts his eyes over everyone “was it something I said?”

Nathaniel pushed back from the wall and walked away without saying a word, Luka looked like a kicked puppy for a second but he forces a flat expression and heads back into the house boat. 

“Luka and Nathaniel haven’t spoken to each other since the sixth grade” Juleka explains quietly, everyone else awkwardly concludes that as the end of the water fight. Juleka waves everyone into the houseboat for the summer celebration drinks and cookies; no one wanted to leave on a downer. Adrien looks back at where Nath was standing before entering the boat, what the heck had happened between them? 

While the others talked about their summer plans Marinette excused herself to the washroom. She turns a corner and spies all their school bags gathered, quietly she opens her own and pulls out the miraculous box. She sucked in a breath to even her nerves and checked them over for the right one. Ivan’s was bright pink but he also had his name stitched to the front so his was easy to avoid. She noticed one that was black with bat wings attached to it, she would have to compliment Juleka on it later. She found one with blue iris flowers decorating it and concluded that it had to be Rose’s, she loved things like flowers. She hears footsteps coming her way and quickly shoves it in, turning around to face Adrien wiping his wet hair with a towel. 

“Hey Marinette” he says casually.

“Adrien hi, uh so did you like Juleka’s chocolate car salt-uh chocolate salted caramel cookies?” many years of avoiding conversation topics had made her a master of thinking up ones on the spot. But because it was Adrien she still managed to stumble over her tongue.

“They were good” Adrien replies politely then a frown forms on his beautiful face, “do you know what happened between Luka and Nath?”

Marinette shook her head “I didn’t even know Luka till a year ago, it’s a surprise to me too”. She grabbed her left wrist self-consciously as the sounds of a guitar came from Luka’s bedroom. Noticeably more anger in the notes then the first time she had heard him. She looks back at Adrian’s guilty face “so uh what were you planning to do this summer?”

Great idea Marinette ask the guy who just lost his house what his plans were this summer. Marinette mentally kicked herself as Adrien laughs nervously. “Well you know, modeling stuff maybe…” he trailed off wondering if anyone still wanted to work with him thanks to the whole dads a super villain thing. 

“I hope we can hang out sometime okay bye” Marinette squeaked so fast Adrien almost missed what she said. He sighed and rubbed the towel though his hairs, making it look slightly like it did as Chat. He’d find out about Nath and Luka later, he had bigger moths to fry at the moment.

Juleka waved as the last of her friends left for home, promising to clean the front deck so they could have band practice there. Rose was last to leave and picked up her bag to swing over her shoulders.

“Promise you’ll visit me at work” Rose says referring to the smoothie/café she had gotten a summer job at. 

“I will” Juleka squeaks grabbing her own bag. 

“Oh and thanks for letting me borrow your bag this will work great on my Halloween costume” Rose rubbed the leather ears of the bat bag “I’m going to be such a cute vampire” she adds with a squeak. 

Juleka giggles with her and zips of her bag the rest of the way, she hoped nothing had fallen out. “You know it’s a little early to be collecting stuff for Halloween” she says making them both giggle. It was never too early to start Halloween shopping, she planned to start in the thrift stores tomorrow. 

Juleka closes the door to her room and proceeds to dump out everything on her bed. Pencils, papers and other random items including a bouncy ball fall out with a plop. Juleka raises a brow at a large brown box that fell out with the stuff, she didn’t remember packing that.

Naturally when you find something unusual in your bag the first thing Juleka does is open it, a bright light came out of it making her drop the box in surprise. When it fades she’s face to face with a giant insect with large eyes and a small smile on its face. the insect opens his eyes and its wings give a small flutter. He clearly didn’t need them to fly, “hi I’m…” he spoke then trailed off.

“So cool” Juleka pokes the head of the stunned kwami, “I’ve never seen a bug as big as you, Rose would think you’re so cute”.

“Rose” Nooroo echoed eyes wide, this was not Rose. Juleka gasped lightly and grabbed him to hold in her hands, he was too stunned to resist. 

“And you have only four legs and two body segments, that’s strange since most bugs have six legs and three body segments. And how do you fly?” 

“It’s because I’m not an ordinary bug” Nooroo says deciding there was no backing out now, the goth girl froze with her mouth open hearing him talk. “My name is Nooroo, I am the kwami of generosity”

“A coomi?” Juleka asks and pokes his belly, Nooroo giggles from the tickle and nerves. 

“A kwami, I can give you the power to make other people champions” Nooroo clarified as Juleka sat down on the bed knocking her supplies to the floor. 

“Wait like how Hawk moth created Akuma’s, are you Hawk moths kwami?” 

Nooroo felt tears well up and forced them down, okay you practiced this. He had to convince her he was good, that his power wasn’t evil. “Yes” he squeaked, “but I’m not evil I-“.

“This is awesome” Juleka cuts him off “what better way to show Hawk moth he’s done then giving his powers to another person” she stands on the bed and he flies up to float in the air. “That is what I’m getting at here right?”

Nooroo nods and zips down to his box with the miraculous still inside “yep just put on my miraculous and I’ll explain”.  
Juleka jumps down and picks up the pin, at first she puts it on her neck like how Gabriel had done but she frowns. She opens up a mirror compact on her wrist and takes out the mirror to reveal a hallow interior to hide small items. She looks at Nooroo for permission and he nods. Juleka holds up the miraculous now secure in the bracelet.

“Okay so first here’s what we can do…” Nooroo starts feeling a large smile creep up on his face, he liked the energy of this girl. Sometimes his wielders would be scared of him at first but she was fascinated, and it only grew as he explained. “And you activate the powers by saying wings flutter” he concludes doing a spin in the air, finally his powers would be used without the darkness. 

Juleka holds her arm up readying herself for an epic transformation “Nooroo wings flutter”. 

The miraculous lights up and Nooroo is sucked into it, Juleka brought her hand down and a mask magically appeared over her face. She flipped her hair and it wrapped itself into a French braid, her outfit covered her with skin tight purple. Butterflies were on the pattern around her legs and her chest. She flipped her hair one more time this time creating small butterfly wings on her back. The wings flapped twice and she posed with her arms crossed in an X. 

“Whoa” is all Juleka can say checking herself out in the mirror, even her boots were cool. They were the only grey part of her costume and looked almost like a chrysalis. She spies a rod sticking out of one and pulls it out, with a click to the side it turns into its big form of a cane. “Oh this is so cool” she says holding the cane in front of her face, she tugs on it and the sword inside peeks out. She laughs gleefully pulling the sword out and swinging it wildly, she nearly slices her bed post and puts it back in the sheath before she did any damage. She spots her wings, could she fly? She tries to figure out how to use them but nothing works, maybe she could just glide. She jumps off the bed and it takes a few seconds for her to hit the ground, she could bloody float if she wanted!

Wait, she needed a name. Juleka wasn’t a hero name and Nooroo made it very clear secret identities were very important. “Fear not citizens for I am Lady Butterfly…” Juleka points the cane at the mirror with a grin, it drops and she scratches her chin. “That doesn’t sound and there’s already a lady of Paris” 

“Uh Papillon…uh no that doesn’t sound right” she says with a disgusted expression. She makes a different fighting pose for each name, each looking rather silly as she darts around her room. 

“Mariposa, no too cutesy”

“Violet Butterfly, no way too long”

She stared at herself trying to think of something else, most of the hero’s of Paris were their animal plus their colour. Like Chat Noir and Rena Rouge, but then again Queen Bee and Carapace had ones that were totally unique. 

She jumped off her bed and stuck another pose, this one being hands on the hips “fear not darlings for I am princess butterfly” she said with a sexy purr. She burst out laughing, and then composes herself “okay that’s way too dumb, come on brain think”. Nothing comes and she slaps her forehead “hey Nooroo got any ideas?”

Silence greets her “guess you can’t talk while we’re transformed” she mutters with a sigh. She sits on her bed and pouts; she couldn’t be a superhero without a name. Tiny feet tap the glass on the end of her cane and she smiles at the small white butterfly that had flown in through the window. 

“Got any ideas little guy?” she doesn’t expect nor get an answer but the butterfly was nice company. She looks down at her boots than springs up in excitement, making the butterfly fly off and around the room. She spins and poses with her arms forming an X, “greetings Paris, my name is Chrysalid” oh yes that was the one. It sounded bad ass but not totally evil, the butterfly landed on her shoulder as if to say he liked the name too. 

“Hey Juleka-“Luka calls poking his head in the room after knocking once. He’s greeted by an empty room. “I know you’re in here” he adds opening the door all the way. 

Juleka opens the closet to stick her head out; she had already dropped her costume so her hair covered half of her face. “I was just in the closet” she squeaks feeling Nooroo hide under her hair.

Luka’s grins cheekily “I thought you were out of the closet” Juleka frowns and sticks her tongue out at him. “Anyway mom wants you to know dinner is ready” he adds and heads to where they ate every night. The smell of spaghetti and meatballs makes Juleka’s mouth water.

“You want anything?” Juleka whispers to her new bug friend, Nooroo whispers in her ear what he really liked to eat and she smiled. “I have just the thing” 

 

Gabriel looked up at the sound of the heavy metal door opening; a guard gave him a cold look then held it open for his son to walk in. He noticed right away that his clothes had been soaked and dried out in the sun, ugly wrinkles had formed on them. by habit his eyebrow raised in annoyance, first day locked away and his son was already wrecking his image. 

Adrien sat down on a chair opposite his father, his body so still he may have been a statue. Gabriel was dressed in orange prison clothes that looked alien on him, but he still had the same energy around him. Gabriel waited for a solid minute waiting for him to speak, to get the courage to speak.

“So how have you been Father?” he said at last, his father’s expression changed to one that was even less amused if that was possible.

“Adrien do not waste my time with small talk, you are here for a reason” Gabriel deadpanned attempting to move his hands to his lap, one chained to the table in front of him prevented the motion. He wanted to move his arms behind his back, distance himself from Adrien like he always did. There was no office to hide in this time, he was vulnerable. So like any trapped animal he was trying to make himself as intimidating as possible, Adrien took notice of this. The way his back was stiff, his expression was cold and unloving. He looked at Adrien like he was scum for coming into his space.

Or had he always looked at him like that?

Adrien sighed and his eyes grew fierce, his entire body language changing. “Father it’s time you were honest with me” he says determined “I want to know what happened to Mom, how you got the butterfly miraculous and why you thought becoming a super villain was ever a good idea”. 

His father is hard to read, his expression stone faced. Then he chuckles softly in the bulletproof questioning room, his voice bouncing off the walls. Did his son not understand that behind the windows officers were watching them? That if he told him the truth he would be considered insane? Adrien doesn’t move, Gabe sighs and fiddles with the cuff tied to the table. “Fine I’ll tell you, as you know your mother disappeared Christmas day a few years ago…” 

It was late, Gabe yawned as he finished placing presents under the giant Christmas tree. He stood up to admire his work; the tree looked magical under the glow of the moonlight coming in. The moment is ruined when he hears Emilie yelling for Adrien, he turns and runs toward her voice. 

He threw open doors trying to locate them, he hears her again and his feet almost glide down the stairs. He finds them in the basement, in the part of the house neither had stepped foot in since the…accident. The giant butterfly windows cast the room in lavender light; his wife was in the middle of the room with her long blue silk nightgown curled around her legs. She was on her knees and was cradling someone in her arms; Gabe stepped closer to find it was his son Adrien.

“Emilie what happened?” Gabriel asks grabbing her by one shoulder; his wife lets out a sob and puts her forehead on Adrien’s. He looked like he was asleep, Gabriel didn’t understand.

“You know the deal” A cruel voice speaks to them, female but not human. Gabriel looks up to see another figure in the room, Nathalie. Her eyes were two purple lights and her head lay on her neck in a way that couldn’t be comfortable. Gabe stepped in front of his family but his wife stood and pushed him to the side. 

“How dare you, how dare you hurt the people I love” Emilie cried, her voice echoed off the walls. 

“You can save them Emilie, we just need-“ 

Gabriel gulps seeing inky like strings attached to parts of Nathalie’s body; at the end of the strings was a hooded figure that nearly blended in with the shadows. The stings made sticky sounds as they pulled up Nathalie’s hand to hold it out to Emilie.

“-You”

“Emilie what’s going on?” Gabe finds his voice but Emilie doesn’t look at him, silently she brushes the hair out of Adrien’s face then turns to Nathalie.

Without warning the stings grab hold of Gabe and throw him into the wall, Gabe can’t let out a scream it happened so quickly. With his ears ringing he hears his wife call for him, his vision clears to see her reaching for him. She growls and shouts something at Nathalie, or the creature behind her. 

She throws her arms out and a blue light makes Gabe shield his eyes, when it dies down Emilie wore the most beautiful outfit Gabriel had ever seen. Green and blue mixed into a gorgeous display of colour, a cape of feathers trailed down her back. “Fine then “she hissed walking towards Nathalie, Gabe found his voice and tried to get to his feet.

“Emilie “he cried only for the stings to attack his leg making him cry out, Emilie picks up Adrien and as if she teleported she was in front of him. 

“Gabriel-“she gently placed a hand on the side of his face, tears threatened to fall down her face. A face covered with a teal mask“-take care of Adrien” she placed Adrien on his father’s lap. Gabe could now see the blackened mark on Adrien’s side. Emilie used one of her fans to slice the dark strings away it made a shriek and crawled back to the shadows.  
Gabriel’s vision was blacking out, he could only watch as Emilie marched towards Nathalie and the darkness around her leapt to the air in excitement. Swirling and creating a strange vortex like something in a nightmare. Emilie brought a hand to her chest and whispered something to it, and then she turns and jumps into the middle of the vortex.

“Goodbye Duusu” he hears as she rips off a brooch from her chest and disappears into the vortex. Nathalie’s collapses to the floor, the black strings vanished. 

“I don’t remember any of that” Adrien says once his father had finished his story, it was strange to hear such a tale being told with almost no emotion from the man. It was like he was just telling giving a statement at work. 

“I instructed Nathalie to return you to your room, when the “demons” disappeared so did your wounds” Gabriel states picking some dirt from under his fingernails. “I worked endlessly into the night trying to piece together what had happened, but Nathalie could not give me the answers”. He tapped on the table and stared at it as if it was to blame.

 

Gabe held up the peacock brooch in his room, the police would never buy what had occurred. Nathalie had no memory of what had happened and there was no evidence. He would call them in the morning to report her missing, for now the mystery was why she took this off in such a dramatic display. The feathers gleamed in the moonlight but other than beauty it was just an ordinary brooch. His mask cracked and he growled loudly. He threw the brooch into the mirror on the other side of the room, taking pleasure in the sound the glass made. He let his temper flourish; picking up his father’s old cane and striking it out on anything he could swing it at. Furniture broke, papers were flown, and more glass shattered to the floor. Once pooped he looks at the damage he had done, taking pride in the mess that hadn’t fixed anything. His smile falter’s when he looks to the floor and doesn’t see the brooch; it should have landed around here. He turns to the mirror and sees a hole in his chest; he peers in closer and gasps. He takes the cane and starts smashing the mirror, widening the hole until he could step through it. 

He had built this house to have a few secret rooms; Emilie had suggested it to add a little fun to the mansion. He had all but forgotten about this one, a secret reading room with a perfect mound of pillows to curl up in. It seems Emilie had forgotten about it as well, if the dust was anything to go by. But what got his attention was the butterflies that had settled around on the pillows and old books, looks like they had gotten in by the slightly opened window. He found the brooch laying on the floor and picked it up, putting it in his back pocket without a second glance. Then his eyes fall on a box almost glowing by the window, he picks it up and opens it. A purple light blinds him. 

“But why was the miraculous hiding in the reading room?” Adrien blurts leaning towards his father, once he realized what he’d done he shrinks away. 

His father rubbed his eyes with one hand “I do not know Adrien, not that it mattered. I learned what I could do and set the plan in motion”.

“To be a super villain” Adrien answered for him, he copied his father’s pose and tried not to feel the eyes behind the window studying them. He noticed his father hadn’t mentioned the kwami, he must have known the kwami had to be kept a secret for some reason. 

“We needed her back Adrien” he leaned towards Adrien and grabbed one of his hands “and we can still do it”. He moved the hand to look at Adrien’s miraculous with a look that made all the small hairs on Adrian’s arms stand up. “Adrien do you trust-“

The door opens loudly cutting Gabriel off, a guard with a shiny gun at his belt steps in “visiting hours are over, come with me Adrien” he orders politely. Adrien nods and gives his father a quick goodbye, Gabriel’s face flashed with irritation but he quickly sealed it under the mask. 

Adrien followed the officer to the front office where several officers were quietly working on computers or about to leave for patrol. A woman with a bright orange dress stood out in the brightly lit room, she smiled at Adrien and gestured to the chair in front of her. Adrien obediently sat and glanced at her name tag to find she was from social services. 

“It’s nice to meet you Adrien, my name is Honey Sweetener” she said warmly, she took a seat opposite him. Her hair bounced on her head and her large earrings clicked from the movement. “Now it’s been a long night so I can skip to the chase if you’d like” She added with a toothy grin.

Adrien nodded almost numbly, it felt like a dream. Like any moment he was going to wake up in his room with Plagg begging for cheese. 

Honey reached into her bag and pulled out some papers “since you’re still a minor you need a guardian till you’re at least eighteen” she slides it towards him. “You don’t have many options I’m afraid, but Mr. G has asked to be your guardian”.

“Mr. G” Adrien echo’s raising a brow “who is-“ 

A large as hell man squeezes though the doorway with a grunt, he glares down at the door out of habit. His gaze softens when his eyes meet Adrien’s, his lips move up awkwardly in what was supposed to be a smile.

“Gorilla” Adrien yelps before he could stop himself, Honey giggles at his reaction.

“Like I said Adrien it’s up to you, but Mr. G has agreed to keep you in the same school you were attending and his flat is up to our safety standards” Honey watches Adrien pick up the pen. 

“You’re serious about this?” Adrien asked and the ex-bodyguard nodded, Adrien bit his lip in thought then decided. “Thank you” he says writing his signature in the space provided. 

They were quiet on the ride to the Mr. G’s place, not that it was abnormal for rides with him. Adrien anxiously looked out the window as the rental car drove down an unfamiliar street, luckily it didn’t seem too far from where his home used to be. 

He let Adrien go inside first; the model flinched at first at the ugly red carpet inside. Mr. G grunted to get him over to the elevator and traveled up to the third floor, like normal Mr. G carried his things as if they weighed nothing. He opened the door and Adrien stepped inside, the place was tiny compared to the mansion. The kitchen, living room, and dining room all shared the same space. Thankfully the red carpet was replaced by hardwood floors; the walls had paintings of flowers on them. Adrien spotted an easel sitting by the doors to the tiny balcony and smirked, who knew the giant man painted as a hobby? 

Mr. G set the suitcases down and pointed to a set of doors and shook his finger, “don’t go in that room” Adrien guessed and the gorilla nodded. He opened a smaller door to the left of the door and gestured for Adrien to step inside.

The room didn’t have much, a small bed neatly made and a desk in front of the window. A small closet to the side would hold whatever outfits he had left. Adrien could walk four steps and he’d be on the other side of the room, he looks back at Mr. G to see he was looking sadly to the floor.

“It’s perfect” Adrien said sliding his bag off and setting it on the bed, ignoring the squeaks of protest from the old mattress. The gorilla looked up at him with a shy smirk; with new found energy he gives Adrien the grand tour of the place. Including pointing out a game console he had set up in the living room, a closet with cleaning and art supplies, he let Adrien peek into his room to see it was just his bedroom where he had clearly thrown most of the mess in order to pass inspection. He was making a point to Adrien, there were no secrets here. Finally he showed him the kitchen and opened the fridge to pull out a container of milk. He took out some lucky charms and offered Adrien a bowl, Adrien smiled back taking some cereal for dinner. His stomach didn’t feel like anything heavy so this worked.

After a moment of fiddling with the bathroom sink Adrian sat in his pajamas on his bed. He pulled his phone out to charge and spent a good twenty minutes texting his friends to get them up to date and reassure them he was fine. Nino insisted he come to his house tomorrow for dinner and Adrien said he’d ask for permission. He put the phone in to charge and turned back to the bed with a yawn, Plagg phased in through the door having explored the place himself. 

“I like it, plenty of cheese in the fridge” Plagg purred licking his paws; Adrien could only hope he hadn’t eaten everything. 

Adrien jumps at an ugly meow coming from behind him and turns to greet a familiar black Persian cat. The cat slid though the open window and sat down on his bed like he owned the place, Adrien tried to shoo it but it didn’t budge. 

“Okay fine, two strays are off the street tonight” Adrien sighed throwing the covers over himself and trying to get some sleep. 

“He’d better not give me fleas” Plagg whined making a bed on Adrien’s head, Adrian chuckled and the Persian began to purr. Adrien looked up at the moon though the clear windows, allowing the purrs to put him to sleep. 

In a house on the other side of Paris a girl walked down the hallway, she was dressed in a blue silk kimono with pink flowers on one side. Kagami let her hand trail across the walls as she enters the backyard, which was also the training yard for her families fencing classes in the summer. She spies her target laying in the grass, a phone with an ordinary black case. Good thing it hadn’t rained, she had ran out of time earlier and had to leave in a rush to make it to a special family dinner. She sticks the phone in her pocket and hears a twig snap, she turns and gasps at the creature coming out of the shadows. it could have been a wolf or something else, it’s form kept shifting as if unable to hold itself together. 

Kagami grabs a stick closest to her and prepares for a fight, the creature lunges and she expertly forces it to the ground. The creature sweeps her legs out and jumps on top of her, she grunts and kicks it in the behind to knock it over. Then before it can recover she spins the stick and hits the creature with all her strength. 

Kagami smirks as the creature disappears from sight, “well done little cub” a voice says behind her. Kagami spins ready to attack but has to hold a hand up to avoid being blinded. a bright yellow light was all she could see, the light forms into a lioness. “You were clearly outmatched facing a demon with a stick, but you still fought and won in the end” the lioness continued with an edge of pride in her voice.

“Who are you?” Kagami jabs the stick at the lioness, her eyes darting around the yard for a better weapon. 

The lioness bows her head “my name is Purrde, I am the kwami of pride” she says taking a step towards the girl. “And you Kagami are worthy of the power I offer” she finishes holding something out in her mouth. Kagami cautiously holds her hand out and the lion places something cool in it, she holds it up to her face to see it was a necklace shaped like the sun. 

“Should you take it, I will train you in ways of the sword long lost to time” 

Kagami gasped as her vision was flooded by a figure dressed in golden armour, he attacked waves of enemies without breaking a sweat. He dueled a samurai using techniques that seemed impossible yet he performed them anyway. He roared and a band of knights appeared behind him ready to fight, raising their weapons to the sky.

The vision disappears and Kagami is back in her yard with the mysterious lioness, “do you accept?” it purred despite that not being something lions could do. 

Kagami puts the necklace on and feels it almost burn against her skin, “when can we start?” 

“Right now” the lioness purred then let out a roar, a phrase comes into Kagami’s mind and she says it without hesitation

“Purrde let’s hunt” 

The lioness gets sucked into the necklace lighting up each piece of sun in fiery colours. A sword appears in her hand and she hold it in front of her face, her reflection on the sword had the mask first then it burns onto her face. She brings the blade down covering her body in the magical flame and leaving a skin tight brown and yellow body suit. She puts her hands by her head and lion ears pop into place, she claps her hands for claws to pop out of her gloves with little paw prints on the inside. She spins twice, puts the sword in a sheath on her side and poses with her arms crossed.

“Oh this-“she says in her mother tongue, in her mind she could see what she could do. She turned to a log used for practice and shot towards it, a flash of golden light is all that’s seen and the log falls apart. Kagami stands tall looking at her claws almost glowing from the attack “-this is going to be amazing”. Without thinking she turns to the moon and lets out a roar, thankfully it sounded more like a lion’s than a human trying to make the sound.


	2. The rise of Raion

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Raion means lion in Japanese

Chapter 2, Rise of Raion  
Paon flapped his arms and used the fans to glide over several buildings, the warm summer wind blowing his hair back even when he landed. He looked down to see one of the parks down below, some tents had already been set up for the flower show in a few days. He flew down to a flat part and listened to the crickets playing in the grass. For a while the park hadn’t affected him, but after seeing Luka he was reminded of it all over again. He placed his hand on a grand oak tree and circled around it, pausing at marks on the trunk where he now had to look down to see properly. Once they had been at his eye level, maybe Duusu was right he was getting taller. He’s thrown out of his thoughts at the sound of feet slamming into earth from above; he turns to the sound to find a girl he hadn’t seen before.

Naturally his eyes scan her over for her abilities in battle; she was dressed similar to the miraculous hero’s. Her suit was lion themed, brown for the most part but more golden around her torso, hands and feet. He took note of the sleeves being kimono inspired, and tucked that info away as something to grab if a fight were to occur. Her ears twitched and her eyes opened to glare at him, the brown reminded him of the Bronze Age style of swords. 

“You are Paon Bleu” she announced walking towards him, Paon’s hands went to summon his fans but he forced them to rest on his hips. No need to attack just yet. 

“Yes so I am. Who are you?” he briefly considered pretending he wasn’t Paon and was just walking around in a skin tight bird suit for shits and giggles. But the girl didn’t look like the type to find that amusing, her expression was cool and focused.

She drew her sword and held it in a way to shine off the moonlight, nice to see she was the dramatic sort. “I am the lioness of pride, Raion” she purred pointing her weapon at him “I would like to test my skills on a worthy fighter, will you battle me?” 

Paon frowned; he figured new enemies would appear soon enough cause that’s how it always goes with super heroes. Still he was hoping he would at least get a one day without a battle, oh well he could get away with sleeping in tomorrow. “Okay-“ 

Raion lunges at him so suddenly he cuts off to block with his fans, her eyes flashed with excitement and she attacked again. Paon blocked and jumped looking for a chance to attack back, her weapon moving so fast it could cut steel like butter. He got his chance and spun to trip her with his back feathers, then switched to a more bird tactic and pinned her down with his legs. Her sword clattered on the ground out of her hands. 

“Are you another akuma?” he asked as she reached for her sword, he blew it away with his fans sliding it into a nearby bush.  
She glared at him “I told you I am the lioness of pride” something on her chest lit up and Paon realized it was a miraculous. The sun shaped necklace burned brightly and spread up her throat, Paon yelped and flew up to avoid her attack. She said no words but instead a powerful lion’s roar pulled from her throat, a solar flare of fire chased Paon burning his heels and creating sweat on his brow.

He landed ungracefully in the park’s fountain thankfully not as a roast chicken. She stalked towards him and released her claws, Paon gulped seeing they were red with heat. She pounced and he closed his eyes and brought a fan up to block, the water whipping by his face. 

Raion’s eyes widened but she wasn’t fast enough to dodge, a blinding blue light flooded from Paon’s chest into his fans in vein like streaks. Their weapons collided and the light exploded sending her flying backwards. Paon shot into the air trailing the water behind him; Raion scrambled to her feet and used what techniques Purrde sent into her mind. 

The peacocks are fast and agile but take out the legs and it was left helpless. But she was forced to defend his lightning fast strikes and wait for an opening. In her struggle to fight against the fans she forgot about the back, he kneed her then spun so quickly she was knocked against a tree. 

When the stars settled Raion looks up to see Paon standing in front of her, the glow had disappeared from his body but remained slightly in his eyes. Peacocks couldn’t see in the dark right?

Paon held his hand out and Raion smiled and took it, once back on her feet she spies her sword in his grasp. He holds it out to her with the blade pointed to the Earth “we cool?” he asks as she quietly takes the sword and puts it back in her sheath. 

“Yes we’re cool” she confirms and gasps as her necklace beeps at her. One of the pieces of sun turned grey. 

“You’re going to change back” Paon yelps before he could stop himself, Raion grabbed her necklace in a panic then her shoulders relaxed.

“I look forward to fighting by your side when the time comes” she purrs with a bow of her head, she turns and jumps on a nearby street lamp with no effort. Then in three more jumps she’s vanished from sight, Paon sighs looking at the damage they caused. Luckily not much other than a circle of burned grass from her attack and water sprayed around from him falling into the fountain. 

He considers calling one of his team to report what happened but he had a feeling no one was up. He yawned and stretched than shot off into the night, not noticing the flash of a camera behind him. 

 

Juleka yawned as the morning sun forced her awake; she got the scent of pancakes in the other room and lifted her head up eagerly. A squeal by her head snaps her attention away and she peeks over to see Nooroo on the floor rubbing his head. 

“Sorry Nooroo” Juleka says climbing out of bed and picking the kwami up, Nooroo mumbles keeping in mind to maybe not sleep tangled in her hair. “Would you like to help me pick out an outfit for today?” she asked carrying him over to her closet, Nooroo flew out and sat on a hat to watch.

Juleka put on a fashion show for Nooroo, most of her wardrobe was purple and black with a few other colours here and there. She went with the one Nooroo really liked, a short dark purple skirt with a crop top with a galaxy pattern on it. She completed the look with leg high black boots which would probably be too hot later in the day. They went to the bathroom next to work on her makeup, Nooroo quietly watches her choose between purple lipstick and normal lip-gloss. He couldn’t help but think of how Gabriel would scrunch up his nose at her style, it was completely different than his.

But he wasn’t with Master Gabriel anymore, he was with Juleka.

“By the way do you wish that I call you master?” Nooroo squeaks once Juleka was satisfied, he flinches seeing her confused expression.

“My friends call me Jul, if you’d like you can call me that” Juleka says softly, she extended her hand for Nooroo to climb on. 

Nooroo smiles sheepishly “Jul, I like that”. 

Juleka grabbed her black beach hat and exchanged her school bag for a small purse for her wallet. She looked up at Nooroo while attaching a hair tie to her wrist “do you want to hide in my purse or under my hat?” 

It was so nice to be given choices; Nooroo concluded it would get too hot under the hat so he chooses the purse. There was enough room in the purse for him, her wallet and her phone comfortably. She zips it up to keep him hidden promising to save him something to eat, once in the darkness Nooroo hugs himself in excitement. The phone buzzes and a text lights up the purse, a text from My Rose said {see you soon} with several heart emoji’s.

Duusu hummed to herself waiting for Nathaniel to wake up, she opened a bag of seeds to munch on while she watched the morning go by. Nathaniel had yet to clean up his room from the sleepover the boys had a few nights ago, although most of the blankets were now on Nath’s bed. Duusu giggled as a thought occurs to her, it looked like a nest. 

Now that she thought of it Trixx would always say his wielders would take on more fox traits the longer he was with them. Would it be possible Nath would take on bird traits? 

None of her past wielders had before, but then again she had only been with them for a short time. The sunflower seed stopped midway to her mouth, if you didn’t count the time she had been stolen away she had been with Nathaniel longer than any of her past wielders.  
Her peachick yawned and sat up in bed, she threw him a good morning and he chirped the same heading off into the bathroom. This was also the first time she was with someone who was still a kid on human terms, who knows what kind of side affects her power could have on him?

When Nath came back five minutes later he was wearing his normal outfit and was fiddling with the sleeves. Duusu burst out laughing “I think someone hit a growth spurt last night” she flew down and tugged down his t-shirt which was now a tad on the tight side. 

“This fit fine yesterday” Nath muttered taking the jacket off and tossing it on the bed, too hot for it anyway. 

“My peachicks growing up” Duusu squeals flying around his head and giving him a hug. Nath laughs with her and tosses the strap of his bag over his shoulder. “Don’t forget those sandwiches in the freezer” she chirps diving in, nothing tasted better on a hot day than a cold peanut butter and jam.

“I- he cuts off as a piercing sound comes out of nowhere, he covers his ears in pain. Duusu flies out nubs over where her ears would be and heads towards the window. 

“Somethings up” Duusu yells over the awful sound, Nath runs over to her to see a giant bird fly by the window. They look to each other and nod.

“Duusu feathers out”

Marinette hummed a song in her head as she sipped her smoothie; Rose had made her strawberry kiwi perfectly. Alya beside her took a sip out of her iced coffee and worked to place a packet of chocolate M&M’s into her small bag. Finally she had found a chocolate that wouldn’t melt onto her bag, good thing since the summer heat had started early. Marionette hoped her sunscreen held up. 

Alya checked something on her phone, gasped and dropped her drink. “What?” is all Alya can say breathless, Marinette peeks over her shoulder to see. It was an update to a brand new blog that was gaining popularity now more than ever from its most recent post. Its working name at the moment was Paon vs the corrupt. The post had several photos of Paon meeting and fighting a masked figure neither girl had ever seen. Alya zoomed in on the ones showing off her special attack nearly roasting Paon alive. 

“I wonder who she is.” Marinette hears herself saying; really she had a faint idea. This had to be one of the knights of sin, the corrupted kwami were already finding new wielders. She frowned in thought at the last one being Paon helping her to her feet with a faint smile on her face, she didn’t look evil.

“Either way it’s blowing up the blog, no fair” Alya whined clicking out and typing furiously on the device, aiming to find all info on this new girl. Marinette took a long sip of her smoothie, wondering what could lure that girl out. Alya makes a confused noise as white static comes out of her phone, Marionette pulls out her own as it makes the same sounds. 

Suddenly there’s screams coming from behind them, the girls turn to see large black birds swooping around Ivan and Mylene. Mylene goes to grab Ivan’s hand and is knocked away by the birds; she rolls into Marionette and Alya.

“IVAN” Mylene cries reaching for her boyfriend, he covered his head with one arm and swatted wildly at them. More of the birds flew out of the shadows and charged after them, Marinette springs into action leading Mylene and Alya out of their sight. 

“You guys stay here, I’ll find someone to help” she orders and runs in the opposite direction before anyone could object. It takes Alya two seconds to run off herself claiming she needed footage of this, which was correct to be fair. 

Mylene left alone puts her hands over her eyes and sobs “this is my fault, I’m so sorry Ivan”.

Juleka gasps and looks up at the mirror in front of her, a wave of urgency blew though her for some reason. Alone in the bathroom of the smoothie shop she finished washing her hands and opened her purse to allow Nooroo out. “Nooroo was that…?” 

She doesn’t finish but he nods understanding what she was getting at “someone needs our help”.  
No time to run home Juleka slides into the nearest stall; this had to be the lamest place to use as a place to transform but it will do. 

“Nooroo wings flutter”

With her mask on the feeling she felt amplified, she closed her eyes and she saw thousands of stars. Nooroo had said each one was a person in Paris, if she concentrated on one she could feel what they were feeling. This must have been how Hawk moth could locate someone to do his bidding, Juleka/Chrysalid held out her cane and focused to find the one that called her first. The star was tiny but she could feel it, fear, frustration…and a desire to save someone. She opened her eyes and a white butterfly greeted her, summoned by her power. It flies into the glass part of her cane and she fills it with her power, when it flies out Chrysalid smirks at its new design. Instead of dark purple like an akuma her butterfly was lavender with a tinge of gold at the tips of its wings. 

The butterfly makes its way outside ignoring the battle taking place; Ladybug and Rena were already on scene slapping away the birds. Ladybug wrapped one in her yo-yo and slammed it to the ground; the large bird broke into three smaller ones. Rena attacked one and back flipped over to her Alya illusion, the illusion shrugs apologetically. The phone in its hands was still buzzing out of control and the illusion was unable to take a photo.

The butterfly lands swiftly on Mylene’s hair barrette she gasped as purple filled her vision, panic shot through her body “oh no please no”.

Chrysalid senses her fear; as soon as the connection was made she also could see what had caused the emotions. Mylene wanted to protect Ivan. “Don’t be afraid Mylene I’m not here to hurt you. My name is Chrysalid” she says confidently. 

“Please I don’t want to be an akuma” Mylene whimpers. 

“The akuma’s are gone Mylene, I offer you the power and courage to save Ivan from those things. To be my first champion to fight against this new evil…but if you don’t want to just say so…and my butterfly will leave”. Chrysalid felt Mylene’s emotions, she knew she could hone in on them and amplify the ones she wanted. But she didn’t touch them; her champions would be created by their own free will. 

Mylene fought back a sob; faintly she could hear Ivan crying out as a bird bit down on his arm. She summoned her courage “let me help him” is all she has to say. A lavender fog wraps around her and solidifies shaped like a chrysalis, than it cracks once, twice and explodes into a bright light. 

Ivan falls to his side and kicks at the bird digging at his ankle, he roars in frustration only for an even bigger roar to drown him out. The birds squawk in surprise as a giant creature jumps over Ivan and eats the nearest monster. 

“What the” Ladybug cries at the newcomer, it looked like Mylene’s akuma form but it was smoother. Its colours were lighter and friendlier. She was now a quadruped. Her form was also longer and she had a long thick tail to balance, she looked more like a dragon than a trashed muppet. The blue dreadlocks flew out like a lion’s mane and her form grew slightly as she finished the bird and roared at the others. 

“Mylene” Ivan squeaks looking up at her, she looks under her and gives what could only be an awkward smile. Ladybug smirks while Rena gawks is shock, Rose must have accepted the miraculous and created her first champion. 

Ladybug’s yo-yo rings and she confidently opens it to see Chat, Carapace and Bee running “good morning my lady, as you can tell we’re having a fowl summer so far”. The screen moves to show off multiple giant birds chasing them “you know I’m allergic to feathers” he adds bringing the screen back to him. 

“We’ll come to you kitty, we got backup” she smiles clicking the call off without another word. “Horrificator can you give us a lift?” she calls to the creature that roars in excitement and lowers its body for them to climb on. 

“You sure this is safe?” Rena asks climbing aboard Horrificator, Ladybug wraps her yo-yo around Horrificator’s neck to use to hold on.

“Don’t tell me you’re scared Rena” Ladybug teases and Rena’s ears perk in challenge.

“No way-“she stops to flash a peace sign at her illusion taking a photo of the three of them; naturally they all posed for the shot. The illusion then throws the phone to Rena who catches it and smiles at the photo put it on airplane mode and it no longer was glitching out. “-Let’s goooooooooo” she grabs hold of Ladybug’s torso as Horrificator takes off towards the others.

“You know I was hoping for at least one day where we could just relax” Carapace cries as the three hero’s jump to an alleyway to avoid the angry beaks of the demon birds. 

“Yeah I have a manicure to get to in half an hour, I don’t have time for these birdbrains” Bee adds groaning as something hot and slimy lands on her head, she doesn’t dare look up, “where’s our bird brain?”

“I’m here” Paon calls dropping down to their hiding spot, the birds had lost interest and were gathering elsewhere. Bee’s face lights up as he stands tall almost eye to eye with her, had her bird hit a growth spurt? Paon suddenly cries out and puts his hands over his ears “who is playing that awful sound?” 

The other three exchange looks and shrug “I don’t hear anything” Chat admits ears dropping in concern as Paon cries out again.

“Well lucky you than” Paon snaps having to yell to hear himself over the noise only he and the birds could hear. 

“Are we dealing with some kind of bird pied piper?” Carapace asks pulling out his earphones and offering them to Paon. Paon takes one look at them to see the sweat and politely refuses. A loud bang comes from above them and they gasp at the sight, Ladybug and Rena grinned from their ride. Horrificator stuck her tongue out to pant and grinned at them like a toothless dragon. 

“Let’s go find out, climb on” Ladybug orders with a huge smile, the others match her grin climbing aboard Horrificator. 

The park the birds were gathered was a little different than their usual one, it had a large pound home to swans, ducks and geese normally. Currently it was home to thousands of demonic birds, in the middle of the flock stood a man dressed in a long black coat. He wore a large rim hat with several black feathers attached and a long silver flute in his hands. He was playing it but to outsiders nothing was coming out, but birds both demonic and normal were flocking to him at an alarming rate.

Ladybug and co land sheltered from view by the trees “okay so this isn’t an akuma, think it’s a corrupt?” she whispers peaking though the branches. Horrificator growled and made a move to charge, it takes Carapace, Paon and Bee to slow her down. 

“Horrificator, listen to Ladybug’s plan before you attack” Chrysalid advises starting up connections between them. The hero’s watch as the normally threatening butterfly mask appeared in front of Horrificator’s face, a noticeable difference was the gold colour at the top. Horrificator grumbled and sat down so quickly she threw Carapace and Paon off balance. 

Ladybug sighed and looked back at the bird man; he was doing some sort of dance while playing. A family of ducklings waddled over to him peeping loudly for their mother, the man smiled and bent to their level like he was about to start a ballet. He raises his hat and Ladybug spies the black spot on his pale as snow skin. A black fog flies out of the spot and wraps the ducklings in the darkness, transforming the ducks into honestly still cute demons. 

The man started his flute again and Paon tried to concentrate on the battle plan Ladybug was discussing with the others. He was currently the only one who could free the corrupt but his head wouldn’t stop aching. The sooner they got rid of that awful noise the better. 

“Okay everyone got the plan?” Ladybug says readying her weapon, her team flashes thumbs up and moves into position. Rena and Chat moved into the trees undetected, Horrificator stood by Ladybug and Paon. Bee grabbed Carapace’s shoulder and flew them behind a tree close to the bird man.

The bird man stopped his dance at the honks in warning from his demonic birds, but he’s too slow to avoid the shield that comes straight at him and knocks his flute out of his hands. He runs after it but Chat pounces out of the trees and grabs the flute first “what do you think you’re doing robin Paris of its birds?” 

“I am Edgar Allen Crow and I will see my Prince’s return” the bird man announced only for his feet to stop moving and he falls face first in sticky gold. He looks up with a groan to see Bee smirking at him with her dipper leaning on one shoulder. 

Chat looks back and trips over a goose that flew in front of him, the flute falls from his grasp into the grass. He goes to grab it but his nose starts to itch “oh no” he manages before he’s trapped in a sneezing fit. 

Edgar raises a hand and two ravens like demons attack the honey trap, Bee growls and smacks the one closest to her. She spies Carapace running for his shield only for a gaggle of geese to start chasing him, they weren’t transformed they were just naturally jerks. He makes a less than courageous sound as they bite his heels with actual teeth on their tongues.

“We can’t let him get loose, come on Horrificator” Ladybug orders from atop the champion, Horrificator roars and charges into the battle. Paon holds on tight as she lunges to eat the nearest bird demon, with a terrible noise the bird is chomped and explodes into eight smaller birds. 

“Horrificator your spit, AHHH” Chrysalid cries jumping up in excitement, then promptly slipping her footing and getting one foot in the toilet. 

Horrificator makes a sound of concern than focuses back on the battle just in time to catch the small birds in her purple goo spit. The goo hardens once it stuck them to the ground and annoyed caws enter the air.

Rena jumps out of her hiding spot to grab the flute before the demonic ducks can, than proceeds to slip on the horror that is fresh geese poop. The demons close in and she throws the flute straight up where Bee catches it “keep away” she yells dodging between two in the air. She flies close to Carapace and throws it to him in order to attack the birds at her heels. 

Carapace catches the flute and continues running, the geese honking behind him. Chat waves his arms and Carapace passes to him, he’s almost got it when a sneeze catches up and instead it smacks him in the head. 

The honey trap breaks releasing Edgar, his coat flew back in the wind like birds wings. He struts over and picks up his flute “now that silliness is over” he hummed putting it to his lips.

“It sure is” Ladybug calls from behind him, before a note could be played his arms are trapped in her yo-yo’s string. He growls and glares at her, Horrificator had finished trapping all the other birds demonic and normal. Carapace was patting her on the head in thanks, while Rena walked up to Edgar and held up an identical flute.

“Not that you could have played anyway” she teases letting her illusion fade, Edgar found himself holding a stick. For good measure Rena breaks the flute over her knee, Paon steps in and grabs hold of the black mark expecting it to pop off. It doesn’t give at the first tug and Paon puts his foot against Edgar trying to get it off. Edgar grins than starts to laugh.

Everyone freezes as Edgar leans against the string in delight, he looks up and stares at Paon “you should know better than to break a corrupt’s tools, you don’t know what’s holding their power in” he yells and his form suddenly expands. Ladybug’s yo-yo can’t adjust in time and she’s thrown into Chat awkwardly. Paon grabs Rena and moves her away before she’s crushed by a giant bird foot; they land and roll thankfully not over bird doo. 

Edgar Allen Crow had transformed into a giant black bird with burning red eyes, now no one was spared from its ugly voice. 

“Hurry up Pollen I don’t want to miss the pound it” Chloe says peeking out from her hiding spot, right behind the spa where she had an appointment. 

“I told you cereal treats take time to eat, they’re rather dry and I don’t want to choke” Pollen coughs as if to prove a point. Chloe rolls her eyes and taps her foot impatiently; Pollen is almost done when a horrible screech makes her drop her treats. “Okay I’m done let’s go” she cries holding her delicate ear holes. With a flash of yellow they were Queen Bee once again, Bee turns out of her hiding spot smacking right into a new figure.

“Can you give me a lift?” she asks politely. 

The screech had power behind it as well; Paon had his fans dug into the ground with Rena clinging to his back feathers to avoid flying off. Edgar flew off into the clouds with another screech that proceeded to shatter windows of every building nearby. His wings flapped again and the crew gasped as the sun practically went out. Edgar had surrounded the city with demonic birds blocking out the sun, Horrificator snarls but none of them seem to care. She lets out a whine and her form shrinks slightly.

“Lucky charm” Ladybug cries and catches her random item of the day. A lion doll falls into her hands, Ladybug blinks in confusion. 

“I can’t get the mark off, we need something-“ 

“To burn it” A new voice cuts Paon off, he turns to see Bee dropping a familiar masked face. Raion smiles showing off some small fangs, “nice to see you again Paon Bleu”.

“Like wise” Paon chirps missing the grouchy look that passed Bee’s face. 

Ladybug looks to her lucky charm and a plan comes to mind, corrupted wielder or not it looked like she would come in handy. “Okay lion girl here’s the plan…”

Edgar lets out a screech as the group approaches him, Chat was the closest making taunting noises atop his baton. “If you’re looking for a butt kicking look no feather than here” he cries shaking his butt in a taunting manner. Edgar swoops towards him followed by several large birds, Rena carrying Ladybug manage to sneak up behind him. Rena throws Ladybug atop the massive bird and defends herself from a bombing bird. 

“Paon’s my bird got it kitty?” Bee hisses flying Raion into position, she does a full split to hit two coming at their sides with enough power they’re sent flying. Raion looks at her with a knowing smirk but doesn’t say anything.

“Don’t look so excited” Paon orders holding the end of Carapace’s grappling hook, Carapace giggles putting the other in Horrificator’s mouth. 

“Your expression is perfect” Carapace chirps grabbing Paon’s end and wrapping it around a tree. “I’m going to call this move angry bird” he adds watching the sky with glee for the right moment. 

Ladybug wraps her yo-yo around Edgar’s beak and yanks him away from Chat. While he’s distracted Raion is dropped by Bee and her sword plunges into the mark.

“Why do I feel like this is some kind of pay-BAAAAACK” Paon screams as Carapace kicks him into the string and he’s slingshot towards the battle. 

“I love broken physics” Carapace cheers and Horrificator gives a roar in agreement.

Raion twists her sword and jumps away right as Paon appears; the black hole starts its suction. Paon immediately disappears into it and Ladybug opens her yo-yo to cover the hole in its light. “What are you doing LB?” Rena calls snapping a photo and getting chased by other birds. 

“I’m just testing a hypothesis” Ladybug answers and to her delight the hole stops its devastating pull. In no time the massive peacock appears to gather the corrupt, she jumps away last second and Rena catches her. 

“Miraculous ladybug” Ladybug cries once they were all on the ground, the ladybug’s swirl around the corrupted birds turning them back to normal. 

Horrificator wags her tail watching the ladybugs until they swarm her, when they leave Mylene is in her place looking slightly dazed. Raion smiles at the cure until a beeping get her attention, her miraculous was losing power already?

“Thanks for the help Mylene, couldn’t have done it without you” Ladybug says helping Mylene to her feet. Rena shows her some photos she got of them kicking butt and the girl nearly faints from excitement. “Now where…” Ladybug trails off seeing Raion was nowhere to be found, she sighs and a beeping comes from her earrings. “Keep an eye out for that lion, we don’t know if she’s a threat or not” she orders after the pound it, Mylene included. The purple butterfly chilling on her shoulder shook off the magic leaving it white once again. Despite her miraculous starting its timer Ladybug offers Mylene a lift back to Ivan, they were apparently having a disagreement before the birds attacked and she wanted to apologize. 

“I’m glad to see Hawk moth’s power being put to good use” Carapace says before heading off to whatever he was doing before the attack. 

Bee leans one arm on Paon’s shoulder “nice job there Bleu, you know it’s our turn for patrol tonight and I was thinking…”

“Hey Paon could you answer some questions” a new voice cuts in. She puts her body between the two using her hips to bump Bee out of the way. Bee had to restrain herself from kicking a civilian, of all the nerve. The reporter wore an orange crop top with short jean shorts; she also wore a red shawl to cover her shoulders. Her hairstyle was the same; Paon never really got the weird ponytails Lila wore all the time. 

“And you are?” Queen Bee snapped face growing slightly red under her mask, Lila smiled in a fake manner and held up her phone.

“I’m the blogger behind Paon vs the corrupt PVTC for short” Lila purred turning to show Paon the background. It was a photo done by photo shop, Paon in the middle with his fans out like wings on a bird. A few of the other team members stood behind him in various poses, making Paon look like the leader. Above him almost like a reflection since it was upside down was the Black Prince, although his armour was a tad more to the gold side. His wings were spread in a gorgeous display with several other corrupts behind him.

Paon steps back and gives a nervous smile “uh that’s cool but I have to go” he squeaked than shot into the air without a second thought. Bee gives Lila a teasing goodbye and flies off leaving the girl alone, Lila crosses her arms and checks over her footage. Rena was doing the same in a tree, she glanced over at Lila and smirked. Looks like she had some competition this summer, the phone in her hand buzzes with a text and she curses. Marionette was looking for her. 

Raion lands in front of her house seconds before her costume fell, “Purrde is everything alright? We didn’t last nearly as long as last time” she asks turning to what she assumed was a lioness of light. Instead she’s greeted by a tiny lion cub floating in the air; it had its paws over its stomach with slight pain in its eyes. “Purrde what happened to you?” 

The kwami flinches looking at its paws “darn it, I don’t have enough power to keep up the big form” she mutters floating down to the ground. Kagami caught her before she hit the dirt; Purrde sighs looking up at her “this is what I normally look like…I didn’t think you’d accept me if I showed up like this”.

“It doesn’t matter what you look like Purrde, if anything this is better. You can fit in my gym bag this way” Kagami says holding the kwami close. “I’ll make us some tea and you can tell me all about yourself” she adds carrying Purrde in. Purrde ignores the growling coming from her body in favor of thinking; Kagami was going to make a great pack leader. She couldn’t wait for the others to find their wielders. 

A red light flies unseen and sits atop a roof of a smoothie place, watching two girls come out chatting away. A blue light flies above a scene taking place in an ally, two men were angrily grabbing at each other’s shirts ready to fight. An orange light jumps from tree to tree watching a young girl fiddle with her phone. The indigo light was hiding in a crack in the wall waiting for the sun to go away, and the green light yelped as a giant metal monster scooped him up and tossed him into mounds of trash.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First Champion and first knight of sin released, this is gonna be fun.


	3. These boys need a hug

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey the next episode is possibly coming out on my birthday, unless it gets pushed back like it always seems to do.

Chapter 3 these boys need a hug 

“Thanks for the lift” Adrien says with a wave the gorilla bodyguard gave a small nod and drove off. Adrien turns back to the building and takes a deep breath, he could do this.  
His father usually worked from home but he had been in the GABRIEL fashion headquarters before. The building was white with the GABRIEL logo on the front. Inside was painfully quiet; his footsteps were loud on the marble floor. But it could have been worse, he was sure to deal with paparazzi the second he left the building. A receptionist he had forgotten the name of peered at him as he approached the desk; she gave him directions to the main office without looking up from her computer. His father had everything planned for his eventual reveal as Hawk moth, including someone to replace him at his job. 

He knocked twice and a sweet voice told him to come in. the woman sitting at his father’s desk was dark skinned and had large puffy hair. “Mrs. Sweetener” he cries recognizing her from the other night, she looked up at him and giggled. 

“It’s nice to meet you face to face Adrian, I’ve heard nothing but nice things from coworkers” she said with a big smile and offering him a hand to shake.

“Didn’t we meet last night?” he asks taking the hand to be polite, she had a strong grip.  
Her smile withers than her eyes light up “oh you must have met my sister Honey, I’m Sugar Sweetener I can understand the confusion”.

“You guys are twins?” 

“Triplets actually, our brother Steve works in the hospital as a nurse” she sat down on her chair. “Now I’d like to talk with you about your business with us as a model” her fingers tapped on the keyboard for a moment. Adrien didn’t say anything too nervous to speak; she turned the computer screen to him so he could see. “You’ve worked with the Gabriel line pretty much since you could walk, and just like your mother you’re a natural at it” she used her finger to flip though photos on the screen. “But with recent…events it would be best for you to take a break for a little while”.

“Am I being fired?” Adrien asked at last, Sugar’s expression read pity as she closed out of the photos leaving her background of a bunch of Yorkie puppies.

“No, no, sweetie what I’m trying to say is that with everything that’s happened to you it would be unfair to have you work the intense summer line” she stood up to step around the desk barrier. “Just enjoy being a kid, go to the water park with your friends, have ice cream. And if you still want to work with us we’ll talk again before the autumn line” she held her hand out for him to shake again. Adrien smiles and shakes it, he’s about to leave when someone knocks on the door.

“Excuse my interruptions Ms. Sweetener but I have urgent news for Adrien” her assistant squeaks fiddling with her glasses. “The hospital called to say Nathalie Sancoeur is awake and wants to speak with you” Adrien gasps and bolts out of the room. 

 

Adrien slowly walks into the room glancing at the nurse who smiles at him warmly. He steps into the hospital room and stops in front of the bed, his mouth is dry as he tries to think of a greeting.

Nathalie opens her eyes and smiles softly “hello Adrien” she greets reaching to adjust her glasses and found they weren’t there.  
Adrien grabs them off the nightstand and hands them to her; Nathalie calmly slides them on her face. Adrien couldn’t help but take notice how pale her face had become, even her hair had lost its shine. The streak of red in her hair had faded and was almost invisible in the strands of black. It lay relaxed around her shoulders standing out against the white sheets and light green hospital gown. 

“The uh nurses called me to say you wanted to talk with me” Adrien announced at last. 

Nathalie nodded and pointed to a box sitting on the other side of the room “can you please hand me that box”. Adrien does as she asks and she shuffles herself into a sit up position “there are some things I believe you are old enough to know now”. She motioned for him to sit beside her and he hesitantly did so. Adrien swallowed as she opened the box and pulled out dozens of photographs, “these are photos I managed to salvage from the mansion before Gabriel destroyed them”.

“When Hawk moth destroyed our home” Adrien muttered bitterly, Nathalie looked at him and shook her head.

“This was before Hawk moth, but it was a tragedy all the same” she held up the first one to him. It was taken on New Years before he was born based off the year in the background. It showed Nathalie and Emilie dancing side by side with drinks in hand, his father nowhere to be seen. They flipped though many photos of the two girls though the years, then of several of them standing in a garden. It looked different when all the plants were alive and the evil butterfly altar wasn’t there. “Emilie always loved the gardens, when your father built the mansion he made sure to preserve her favorites” Nathalie paused on one of Emilie laughing into the camera with one hand outstretched to the camera man. “She especially loved the lavender and lilacs” she continued switching to one where the camera person’s arm was in the picture and it wasn’t Gabriel’s.

Adrien was silent as she flipped through them, but a small smile was on his face. His mother looked so happy; she had crow’s feet as she twirled around in a beautiful evening gown. Nathalie had a secret smirk remembering what had occurred that day; they could never fully get the stains out of that dress. Nathalie stopped at one photo with both of them; Emilie held the camera this time. Nathalie had the activated butterfly miraculous on one side of her head and a peacock flower tucked behind her ear.

“I loved her Adrien, more than words could ever say” Nathalie confessed at the final photo, Emilie sitting on the grass with a flower crown. 

“Did she love you back?” Adrian asked in such a way that he already suspected the truth.

“She loved Gabriel but she wasn’t happy with your father” Nathalie stated bluntly, a bit of her usual tone around him showing. “She would tell me all the time how the mansion felt like a cage, that she had made a mistake by not following her heart”. She put the photos down for a moment; Adrien couldn’t help but understand what his mother felt to an extent. Nathalie closed her eyes as if gathering her thoughts “there was something she wanted more than anything, so she stayed with Gabriel”.

 

“This plan is absolutely insane Emilie” a young Nathalie cried pacing back and forth, her pink silk pajamas swishing against her legs. Emilie watched her from the old wooden bench rubbing her thumb anxiously.

“I know love but it’s the best option” she said standing up to grab her lovers arm, Nathalie looked at her like she was crazy. 

“You want Gabriel to get you pregnant, gather up as much insurance and money as we can, have the baby with Gabe and then just leave him” Nathalie sums up the plan Emilie had proposed. 

Emilie smiled nervously hearing just how ridiculous it sounded “this way we both get what we want-“

“No this so YOU get everything you want” Nathalie snapped yanking her arm free from Emilie. “I love you Emilie but I can’t stand you playing me like this” she was an inch away from throwing the “if you love me” card. But both women knew she could never play such a tactic, Emilie sighed and held her hands over her stomach.

“I love you too Nathalie but no matter how we do it you can’t give me a child. Just please wait a little longer please” Emilie pleaded with the puppy eyes on full effect. 

Nathalie tried to stay stern, be the rock she was to Gabriel. Emilie had her hand entwined with hers, the woman she loved more than anything. Emilie was gifted with beauty, grace and talent, she trusted Nathalie with her secrets. Nathalie sighed and her fist relaxed “alright fine” Emilie grinned and threw Nathalie into a hug. 

Someone as lovely as her always got what she wanted. 

Adrien looked down in thought than back at Nathalie as she opened a packet filled with more photos “she wanted a kid….me”.

Nathalie nodded and held up the first one, it was taken out of a magazine of Emilie showing off her baby bump. A tear slid down Nathalie’s cheek and a laugh escaped her throat “she was so happy holding that positive test…” She coughed and her face went flat, her thoughts leading back to the surprise she had for Emilie. She too got pregnant by assistance of a donor, to show she could in fact give Emilie a child. At the time it was thrilling that both women were pregnant at the same time, Emilie’s child would have a brother or sister to grow up with. But then they needed to store more money…and then Nathalie had suffered a miscarriage. Really it was cruel to have a women care for an infant after losing one herself so soon, but Emilie told her it was just as much her babies as it was hers. Emilie had to work on her career leaving Nathalie to care for them alone, and one thing lead to another…

“And then the two of you were born” she heard herself saying flatly.

The photo was taken in a hospital room, a tired Emilie Agreste sitting on the bed. Gabriel still wearing his work clothes was beside her with an arm around her waist, in Emilie’s arms were two lumps wrapped in yellow blankets.  
Adrien is speechless as he turns the photo to read the names on the other side of the photo. It read Emilie Agreste (24) Gabriel Agreste (23) and Adrien & Felix Agreste (0).

“I had a brother?” His own voice surprised him.

Nathalie didn’t answer him; instead she let him look though the photos of him and Felix in stereotypical baby photos. The photos expended to when they were about two years of age, no matter how hard he tried he couldn’t remember anything that the photos proved. They looked almost identical, but Felix’s hair was more flat while his was stuck up in a silly bedhead. The last one was just Adrien at three years old, his brother wasn’t with him. 

“An…accident happened a little before your third birthday, your father set to work to make it appear as if he never existed to begin with…to spare you all the pain” Nathalie said with a tinge of remorse in her voice. “I’m sorry Adrien I shouldn’t have shown you this” she quickly added gathering some of the photos and putting them back in the box.

“No it’s okay” Adrien said stopping her hand by grabbing it gently, she looked at him more emotion than he had ever seen her with. “Could you tell me about Felix, if that’s okay?” 

Nathalie gave a weak smile and pulled out a random photo, one from the winter with the twins dressed up in cat onesies. “She would always call you her chaton’s, although Felix hated his…” she started up a story than moved on to the next one. Sometimes her voice was flat as she described some events that were slightly painful to her, a defense mechanism. Nathalie had taken care of them while balancing a job as being Gabriel’s assistant so she knew even the tiniest things about them. By request she also spoke about her love for Emilie and gave an abridged version of their conversations in the garden. 

Plagg scratched his chin listening in to Nathalie’s stories, he had a suspicion the “frolicking” in the garden during moonlit nights were a little more personal then Nathalie was telling. 

Eventually a knock was heard at the door and the nurse poked his head in “forgive my interruptions but I think you should let Nathalie rest now” he said stepping in to close the blinds. Adrien chuckled seeing it was night already, Nathalie put the photos back in the box and closed it. 

She handed him the box as he stood up “please take it, I don’t know how safe it is here” she said before he could argue. Adrien gripped the box tightly as he left her to rest, when he left the room there were a few staff members pretending to work on things. Based off some with red eyes he suspected they had been eavesdropping on Nathalie’s stories. 

Paon landed on the rooftop and looked down at the bright as ever city; he was a little early for patrol but it gave him time to drink in the view. Paris was really beautiful, the lights all shades of yellow and gold.

A pair of high heels starts walking behind him; he forced the goofy smile that spread on his face away as he turned to face her. Queen Bee had her hands on her hips and her chest slightly puffed out as she walked up to him. Her wings faintly glowed behind her from the flight, a smirk on her pink lips. Of all the lights in Paris she was the most captivating, he was always drawn to her icy blue eyes hidden behind the black mask. The glamour was always present so he couldn’t place if he had seen them before, still his mind tried to piece the puzzle together.

“Good evening Bleu, ready for patrol?” she purred wrapping her arms around his neck to pull them close. Bee was bold but never this bold, Paon’s voice caught in his throat. She giggled and moved away “I was thinking since tonight is going to be quiet we’d try out that new take out sushi place”.

“I uh sure…what makes you think tonight will be quiet?” he squeaked out, mentally kicking himself to get a grip. 

She took his hand and walked them to the edge of the roof “lightning doesn’t strike the same place twice” she purred running a hand though her ponytail. Paon’s face flushed under his mask and Bee secretly beamed. Thank you romantic anime for giving her the courage to act, with all these new girls around they needed to know he was hers. 

“You know the reason you dislike them is because you see them as queens” Pollen said in her memory after she ranted to the kwami for a solid five minutes.

“Those girls are no queens, they wouldn’t know royalty if they stepped in it” Chloe snapped over the sound of her hair dryer. She put it down to comb her golden locks while studying her lip balm collection, what kind would Paon like? Did he have a sweet tooth and she should go with the cotton candy, or would fruity be a better choice? 

“I mean queens in bee terms, you did read that book I recommended for you” Pollen flew in and sat on a pink tube. Chloe did her usual “of course I did when I really didn’t” act and Pollen sighed annoyed. “There can never be more than one queen bee; her stinger is only used to kill off other queens. You see those girls as intruders to your hive, as other queens” Chloe was only half listening as she chose her lip balm. Pollen sighed once more as she checked the time, time for patrol “just try not to sting them to death Chloe, that doesn’t play well in the modern world” she said before she was sucked into her miraculous.

“I uh…I’ve never tried sushi” Paon admits once they were on the roof of the humble sushi place.  
Bee gasps shocked “you’ve never tried sushi” she echoed turning at the sound of the door opening “well it’s a good thing I ordered ahead of time, I’ll show you what your taste buds have been missing out on”. Paon can only chuckle shyly as she flies down to grab her order from the chef, he smiled politely as she handed him the cash she owed. His teenage son gawks as she takes the bags and flies off into the night.

Two minutes later the two sat by the pier watching the black water flow by. Paon was sitting criss cross as Bee laid out various sushi rolls and other things. She picked up a California roll first with chopsticks and put it in her mouth. He tried to do the same but he clearly had no idea how to hold chopsticks much less use them. The roll falls apart as it hits the ground, Bee laughs at him. 

“You have to hold it like you would a pencil and this one” she leans over to fix his hands into the correct position. “There now try” she orders and he does so, he drops the roll three times but manages to get some of it into his mouth. 

Sushi was…okay, Paon wouldn’t say it was the best thing ever. But once he got the hang of picking them up he enjoyed it, Bee told him what was in each roll and hoarded the spicy tuna ones. 

“I had no idea you liked spicy things” Paon admits as she puts a little wasabi on her food. 

Bee finished her food before speaking “what did you think I liked?” she teased popping some ginger in her mouth.

Paon chuckled and felt his face burn “well you know sweet things like honey…because you’re a bee” yeah that sounded so lame out loud. Since when was he so lame? 

“When you’re around honey all the time you get put off it, although it makes a great ingredient in face masks” Bee replied crunching up an empty bag and shooting it towards the trash can. Luckily it went in so she looked cool rather than having to do the pickup of shame.

“Oh figures…” Paon muttered shyly “well uh-“he cuts off as shouts come from down the road. The two don’t have to say a word to take off towards it; the trouble turns out to be a store owner assisting a drunken man out of his store. 

“Yeah well screw you; I get better beer at your competitors for half price” 

Paon flinched realizing whose voice that is it was Ralph, his father. Ralph gave the man the finger as he left and turned to see the hero’s, “oh hey”.

“What are you doing here?” Paon blurts earning confused looks from both of them. 

“Me? I’m celebrating, Hawk moth is gone and I’m making bank off the crap he’s left for us lawyers” he slurred slightly and gave a joking jump of excitement. Paon crossed his arms and grabbed his flesh, had he really fooled himself into thinking his father had stopped drinking? He had last seen him at Oma’s, how long had he been back in Paris? He had to clench his teeth to not say anything, he wasn’t Nathaniel right now. 

“No trouble here right?” Bee asked in a tone that mothers used to scold children. Ralph put his hands up in mock surrender and picked up an empty beer bottle by his feet. Bee insisted on calling a taxi, thankfully her scepter came with speed dial. Bee raised a brow at how tense Paon looked as they waited for the ride. 

When Ralph was gone they took to the rooftops to begin the patrol, they were about ten minutes behind when they should have started but neither cared. Bee struggled to keep up with Paon as they raced to the Eiffel tower; Paon was silently fuming until she put a hand on his shoulder. “Something about that guy pissed you off” she stated eyes demanding an explanation.

“He just…reminded me of my dad” Paon said at last, Bee’s eyes softened and her hand fell by her side.

“If it helps my mom wasn’t all that great either, but hey poor family relations make great super heroes” she ends with a joke trying to lighten the mood. 

Paon can’t help but think of Adrien at that, “Very true, nothing like having a crappy parent to help you punch a little harder”.

Bee sat down on the metal and looked down “call it cliché but I’ve found fighting with the ones I love in mind to be more powerful”. Down below a bride and groom started their first dance in front of the tower, a cheesy English love song playing. 

Paon smirked hearing the music coming out of speakers down below, he sat down beside Bee. “It’s cliché for a reason, why fight for a past you can’t change?” the bride below laughs as her husband swings her around like she weighed nothing. 

“So-“Bee started to turn away from the happy couple “-you ready for that TV interview Friday?”

Paon gulps remembering that was coming up “not at all, I’m terrible on camera” his memory flashed to the movie his class made a few years ago. He wanted to burn all footage than had him in it, but he forced himself not to in order to get the grade and forget about it.

“You bad on camera” Bee threw her head back to laugh “with how you fight I thought the camera’s loved you as much as you loved them”.

“Fighting is different than an interview, I don’t know how I’m supposed to answer the questions about the corrupt I barely know what I’m doing to begin with” Paon cried throwing his hands up.

“Well just make stuff up, give the people what they want to hear. Throw in a few charming smiles and show off some tail feather and you’re good to go” Bee checked her nails even though gloves covered them. Paon rolled his eyes, as if he could do that knowing he’d be watching it later on the news. 

“I love ladybug but I will never forgive her for making me do this” he mumbled falling back against the metal with a loud clang. “…Ow”

“Aw poor birdy” she teases patting his head. Bee’s phone rings and she sighs upon opening it, “I forgot the flower show was tomorrow” she whines falling back like Paon. Her head makes a loud clang “ow… I don’t even know the first thing about flowers” she grumbles rubbing what surely was going to be a small goose egg. 

“Make stuff up; give the people what they want to hear. Throw in a few charming smiles and OW” Paon cuts off as Bee smacks him with a lazy fist. He rubs his arm but he was laughing. 

“Can you believe Chloe is smitten with this guy, what does he have that I don’t?” Kim whines into his phone. 

“Maybe Nathaniel is secretly loaded, or maybe he brings out the best in her” Max suggested with a yawn, he was used to Kim calling late in the night. Sometimes he worked on his projects at night just in case, tonight he was updating his little robot friend. He listened to the athlete complain about his crush that to his calculations had no chance of being any more than that. 

“Come on this is Nathaniel we’re talking about, and what’s he doing with his light on at this hour? Ooo maybe he sleeps with it on because he scared of the dark”

Max jumped up from his desk knocking papers to the floor “Kim, please don’t tell me you’re outside his house”.

Kim puts the binoculars down adjusting his position on a tree “uh no?”

“Don’t you “uh no” me oh my god Kim that’s such an invasion of privacy. You stay there and I’ll come get you” Max ordered grabbing his copy of keys for his moms car. 

“No, no it’s fine it’s not like anyone saw me” Kim said with a chuckle and peeked through the binoculars again. Instead of Nathaniel’s messy room he sees a close up of a blue mask with rather angry eyes attached. He focused the vision to see it was Paon Bleu upside down with his face right up against him.

“You sure about that” Paon questioned in an icy tone, Kim proceeded to scream, wave his arms like crazy, lose his balance and fall off the tree. Kim waited for the hard ground but it never came, he opens his eyes to see he was dangling a metre off the ground. Paon swings him slowly than drops the athlete on his butt.

“Paon Bleu I uh promise this isn’t what it looks like…” he stammered getting to his feet quickly.

“It looks like you’re spying on someone” Paon deadpanned putting his hands on his hips. The hair not tied back by the peacock crest was around his head like a lion’s mane. 

“Then it’s just what it looks like” Kim admits scratching behind his head, his eyes fall to the binoculars in his other hand and he chuckles nervously. 

Paon jumps from the tree and lands on his feet. Kim gulps as his back feathers slap the ground, Paon wouldn’t kick his butt right? A car horn makes them both look towards the sound, Max steps out of the car and rushes to his friend. He stands in front of Kim like a human shield “please excuse us Paon Bleu we’ll be on our way” he pleads putting his hands in a preying motion. 

Paon forces a frown so he doesn’t crack up, two of his classmates acting like he was a threat to them. “Just make sure he doesn’t get into any more trouble” he orders making his voice lower than it normally was. Max nods and grabs Kim’s hand to pull him towards the car. Kim starts to say something about a bargain but Max shuts him up by closing the car door and driving off. 

 

The next day Nathaniel wanders around the many tents in the flower show, flowers as big as basketballs in every colour of the rainbow. Despite the heat he was wearing a thin jacket so Duusu could peek out to view the flowers easily. As always he had a pencil in his pocket and a drawing pad under his arm. It remained blank even as he passed a sunflower the size of a tree and a rose with blue petals. He was saving the pages for someone else, he stopped in front of a cardboard cut-out of Queen Bee smirking with one hand on her hip. 

“I bet Pollen had her studying flowers all night” Duusu whispered making the two chuckles. Nath jumps at the mayor’s voice booming though the speakers, welcoming people and all that jazz. Nath pushes though a crowd just in time to see Bee come for a landing. She struck a few poses for the cameras than joined the other two judges. 

And they call him the show off.

Her eyes fall to him and she quickly looks to the clipboard she was given, her wings flutter giving her excitement away. She disappears into a tent with the others leaving Nath to try and busy himself with a giant squash. He sits down in the shade to start a doodle of Bee doing her landing pose, concentrating on getting the sharpness of her eyes. Duusu grabs her stomach as a bad feeling wash over her, maybe there was a limit to how many peanuts you can have in the morning. Neither pay any mind to a mosquito with a giant red belly flying under their feet and into the tent.

“Okay Miyuu you can do this” a little red ball whimpers to itself atop a tent. The light died down revealing the kwami as she peeked over the edge. She didn’t need to test Rose; she had already demonstrated her kindness to Miyuu. Rose and her girlfriend were carrying a plant to be judged, Miyuu took a deep breath and pounced. They were too distracted by keeping the plant steady to see the red light shoot into Roses open bag. The kwami released her miraculous from her grip and felt her heart beating in her chest. Rose stopped moving and Miyuu suspected they had found the flower a table. No turning back now. 

Rose grabbed Juleka’s arm and gave a small squeal “it’s her, it’s really her” she jumped excitedly. Juleka giggled as Rose tried to contain her excitement, she was a real fan of Queen Bee. That being said Rose might faint when the judges came to her plant. She had raised the rose from a little sprout, and had cared for it until it bloomed beautifully. The Juleka rose as she called it, the plant’s leaves were a green so dark they were almost black. The thorns the same colour as Juleka’s eyes, a dark brown with a tinge of red. Most magnificent were the purple flowers the same as parts of her hair, all trying their hardest to attract attention. 

The main judge frowned as he carefully inspected the biggest rose, Bee turned to Rose after seeing the name tag “I see the resemblance, it’s uh its very cool how you got the flowers that big”.

Rose’s eyes widen in delight “thank you Queen Bee I worked really hard to grow it and keep it pesticide free”.

The hell were pesticides again? Queen Bee nodded and smiled to cover her confusion and looked back to the other judges. They wrote something down and she did the same trying to look as professional as possible. Although instead of writing comments she had drawn a happy face or frowny face next to each name.

“And what do you plan to do with the prize money if you win?” the tallest judge asked, a look on his face that read he would rather be on his private island.

“Well half will go towards my collage fund and the other half will go towards starting a community garden in my neighborhood” Rose responded with a nervous smile. The judge nodded and walked towards the next table, Bee flashed a wink as she left. She hoped the other judges agreed Rose should win a flower that looked like her girlfriend was absolutely adorable. 

After an hour Nath looks up and cracks his neck, he really had changed his posture when he drew. The mayor was about to present the winners, he rushed over to see. “And this year’s winner is Herb-“

“CHEATER” a voice screeches making everyone jump

The Mayor looks back at the name card “uh no it’s Baker…oh dear” he and the rest of the people on stage back up as vines start growing towards them. People are frozen in fear as the vines reach into the sky and a giant flower grows in the middle. The flower blooms and a figure glares down at the people, she wore a dress of yellow petals and had green skin. Her hair was a mess of thorns and smaller orange flowers like a crown. 

She pointed a jagged finger at Mr. Baker “you could never grow that flower, you haven’t a green thumb”. People scramble away as a light shoots out of her finger and surrounds the innocent man. When it dies down the man is gone and a pot with a tulip is in his place. “I Mother Earth will turn all cheaters into my garden” she cries firing at random. The two other judges become an apple tree and grape vine, the mayor becomes a dandelion. 

Bee jumps in front of her and swings her weapon to destroy the light shot her way. “I knew it was too good to be true for the akuma’s to be gone” she growled and took to the air. Her weapon suddenly falls from her hands and she gasps seeing it had turned into a honeysuckle. “Alright you want my fist? Fine” she growls cracking her knuckle…then turning away to wince in pain. 

Nath slides behind a tent out of peoples view and opens his jacket. “Be careful Nath I don’t think this is an ordinary akuma” Duusu says upon flying out.

“I will Duusu feathers out”

Bee curses as vines chase her. She tried to dodge them but they were everywhere, they trap her in the air and aim their thorns for her throat. Bee closes her eyes and a whoosh of wind blows around her. She opens her eyes and yelps as Paon grabs her and brings her to the ground. “Hey Bee” he chirps spinning to cut the vines in front of them, Bee holds on tight as they get out of range. 

“Well this is a pickle” Paon blurts once everyone had gathered, he had to jump to avoid the vine coming for him. Carapace and Rena were on crowd duty, helping whoever was still human out of the monsters reach. 

“Rena watch out” Carapace cries stepping in front of her with his shield up. The beam hits and Carapace gasps as it turns into a wooden shield. He cries out as a vine smacks it out of his hands turning it to splinters, he ducks as it moves to strike him. Rena grabs the back of his hoodie and takes into the air, hiding a giggle at the scream he made. 

Ladybug scans the crowd as it rushes past, her yo-yo spinning like a shield that ripped apart plants that came near. Juleka and Rose were among the people rushing to safety, hopefully Rose would be able to sneak away and transform. As luck would have it the crowd separates them, Rose into the shelter of a tent and Juleka behind a tree. 

“Can’t believe we’re back to freaking Akuma’s” Bee snapped jabbing her heel into a squash with teeth, it squealed than fell into goop. Juleka flinches at her words; in all fairness she should have seen this coming. Nooroo was misused and his power wasn’t trusted, she closed her eyes to concentrate for a worthy champion.

Nothing, Juleka opens her eyes with a growl. Nooroo flies out from her purse and touches her arm “don’t give up yet, we just have to wait for someone to be inspired”. Juleka nods and peeks out from the tree to watch the battle. 

“Guys I’m not seeing an akumantized object” Paon cries spinning to chop the plants with his feathers. Chat jumps between two corn husks attempting to crush him; Rena zooms in on Mother using her flute camera. No darkened weapon in her hands, none on her body either. 

“Maybe it’s like witchy words, check the area” Rena cries landing on a tree, “you stay here” she orders turning to Carapace then blasting off into the battle. Carapace reaches with his hand than growls in frustration; he wasn’t useless without his shield. Paon dives though the plants using his speed to avoid getting hit, it was a lot easier for him to check the area.

“Not seeing any-GAH” a vine had placed itself like a hunter trap and yanked him up the second he stepped on it. He flails trying to break free but he’s pulled into the large tent, when the stars clear he’s staring right at Mother Earth. Although she was upside down, she hums amused and smacks him with a garden spade. She was fine it was him who was upside down; he struggled to get out of the vines. 

“No point struggling dear, my plants will just turn you to fertilizer” she purred grabbing the edge of his mask and pulling. To no surprise it doesn’t come off, she frowned and turned away.

“So you mad that you lost the prize?” Paon asks watching her stroke a living watermelon like a dog.

“Aye but no worries dearie, the demons have given me the power to take my revenge” she said turning back to him. “And in return-“she pauses to drag the shovel down his face “-I bring her their Prince’s killer”. Paon’s eyes widened as she broke off into laughter, her spade grew into a long rake and she raised it to strike him. 

Mother lets out a yell only for her rake to get jammed, she turns to see Chat using his baton to pin it. “I know I do this all the thyme but are you fur real? That outfit with those gloves” he jokes as he normally would, but for some reason it felt more flat than normal. His eyes weren’t as playful, focused at the task at hand. Mother drops the rake and vines swirl around her arm to make her fist huge. He manages to avoid that but trips over the watermelon dog, falling to his butt and having to crawl away before the vines got him. 

“She took our weed wacker, come on guys” Rena cries charging in, Ladybug and Bee on her sides. Mother snarls and sends her vines at them, encasing them in their thorns.  
Chat smacks the melon away and makes his way to Paon, using his claws to start to cut the vines. Paon opens his mouth to say something but the vines wrap around his mouth to silence him. Paon is unable to warn him about the living pumpkin coming towards him; the pumpkin grabs him with its vines and throws him into a bush of living raspberries. With a cat yowl he claws like crazy until they try to drag him underground, he was almost under when a hand grabs his and yanks him out of the plants grasp. 

“Looks like cats are in harvest” Carapace jokes as Chat brushes the dirt off his hair. 

The illusions disappear in a puff of orange cloud, Mother Earth growls as a yo-yo wraps around her arm. The real Ladybug getting a lift from Bee drops down and pulls Mother Earth to the Earth. “Oh lass that was a mistake” she chirps than her form poofs into dirt. 

Silence falls as Ladybug pulls back an empty yo-yo; the other plants stopped moving and fell to the ground. Bee flies to the dirt pile and jabs it with her heel, Rena does the same with her flute. Paon managed to wiggle his way out of the vines and sits on his knees. “So uh…now what” Chat asks scratching his head. 

Without warning the dirt gives way and everyone falls into the trap. Paon screams as roots down below wrap around him and trap him against the Earth. Rena and Bee try to fly but the dirt gets in their way and the roots get them too. 

“Lucky charm” Ladybug summons her power she catches a pair of garden cutters and immediately uses them on the closest roots. Suddenly two arms made of dirt come out of the wall she’s up against, grabbing Ladybug’s arms and pulling her into the earth. Ladybug’s lucky charm falls to the ground while her team screams for her.

Rose sobs on her knees as she touches a leaf of her flower, she knew Ladybug would soon fix the damage done to her rose but its pain was all the same. Its pot smashed from the overgrown vines, its twigs snapped and its flowers ripped. Her beautiful Juleka rose, she gently held one of the flowers and a tear fell down her cheek. She turned to the opening of the tent and choked on a sob, and her other beautiful Juleka was out there all alone. What if she was hurt? Rose doesn’t notice her bag starting to unzip as she hugs herself. She hated being trapped like this; unable to help those she cared about.

A small voice clears its throat, Rose gasps and turns to see a tiny horse. It had pale pink fur with a dark red mane. A small horn between two brown eyes and it held a chain in its hooves. Its ears were pinned to its head and she could see its tail twitching in fear. “Hello little guy, are you someone’s pet?” Rose asked holding her hand out gently. To her surprise the horse flies into the air and onto her hand, “what are you?” she gasps.

“Um hello…I’m Miyuu” it squeaked quietly, Rose’s mouth had hit the ground. Miyuu’s ears perk and she holds the chain out “I’m a kwami, I have seen your kindness to all creatures and I would like to offer my power to you”. Rose was quiet as Miyuu gave a brief description of what she could do and how. 

“A kwami” Rose echoed accepting the chain; it was an anklet with several hoof print charms on it. “A chance to be a super hero” she whispered looking back to the tent opening than back to the anklet. She traced the charm, so many times she had been forced to stand by and watch as her friends were hurt by evil. Juleka being akumantized, Nathaniel under Hawk moth’s control, and her plant now dying flashed by her eyes. “I never want to be helpless again” she said putting the anklet on and turning to Miyuu.

“Miyuu hooves sparkle”

Miyuu cries out in joy as she’s sucked into the miraculous, the charms turn pink. Rose stomps her foot and skin tight white cowgirl boots appear on her feet. The pink sparkles travel up her body leaving a pink costume behind, but she did have white gloves with a hoof print when she made a fist. She holds one hand over her face as a pink mask forms over her face and a bright light grows out of her forehead. The light turns into a horn and she leans back for the final touch. A rainbow coloured ponytail burst from her head and trailed down her back. She spun twice and blew a kiss to an imaginary camera for her pose.

Maybe we’ll find someone if we move, come on Jul” Nooroo says jumping back into the bag, Juleka nods and starts to run. She doesn’t get far before a giant mound of dirt explodes out of the ground and forms into a woman. Juleka gasps seeing Ladybug unconscious in her hand, Mother Earth lets out a horrible laugh and slams a fist towards Juleka. 

“Watch out” 

Juleka yelps as she’s grabbed into someone’s arms and launched towards the monster. Hooves bounce off Mother’s shoulder and onto a tree than the ground far away. “Are you okay?” Juleka looks to her savior and gasps at the strange super hero. 

“Who are you?” Juleka gasps and the girl’s eyes flashed with concern. But she quickly dashed it and smiled confidently. 

“My name is Licorne, stay safe okay” she gives a wink than jumps back towards Mother. 

“Guys don’t panic, Chat can you use your cataclysm on the roots” Rena ordered using her night vision to see in the darkening pit trap. Paon had already tried to cut with his fans so the roots had him tied to tightly he could barely move. 

“I can try, Cataclysm” he summons the power and touches the closest root. It turns black and crumbles to dust releasing Chat, right away the other roots launch to attack him. 

“Guess they’re not all the same plant” Chat cries using his baton to slap them away but misses the one that grabs his ankle. 

Bee curses as the roots tighten around her torso; she had to get out of here before her claustrophobia takes over. She looks down at her body and runs her hand over her belt, her hands latch onto something that felt like a tiny ball. She pulls it to her face and it the ball grows to its proper size. At first she thought it was a yo-yo from the string, but the shape was all wrong. Her eyes widen remembering Pollen talking about it once, it was the trompo. She rips a hand free and quickly wraps the string around the toy, “LET IT RIP!”

She pulls the string and the trompo lights up and flies around the room. Disobeying physics to slice away at all the roots, whipping around Paon and he releases his fans to catch himself. Once everyone is free the trompo settles back in Bee’s hand. Rena grabs Ladybug’s lucky charm and everyone scurries to get out before the roots grew back. 

“Come on we need to save Ladybug” Chat orders running outside the tent, everyone close behind. To their surprise Mother Earth is distracted by a pink girl running over her. Chat’s eyes fall on Ladybug and he groans seeing the countdown had begun on his ring. 

“I hope this lucky charm still counts” Rena says holding the cutters up as if they held the answer. The girl kicks the dirt away and grabs Ladybug before the dirt could reform. She lands in front of the miraculous hero’s and Ladybug blinks waking up, confused but okay.

“Her miraculous-“Rena cries pointing to Ladybug’s earrings, the last warning going off. Ladybug’s eyes flash with panic as tries to get to her feet.

“I got it” a cheerful voice chirps. They look to Licorne as she reaches and pulls the horn off her head and holds it like a magic wand. She grabs Chat’s miraculous hand and puts it by Ladybug’s earrings, ignoring the looks of confusion.

“Unicorn wish”

The wand lights up and everyone gasps as the miraculous regain the dots and paw parts. Licorne smiles and puts the wand back on her head, “how did you-“Ladybug starts but doesn’t finish.

“I know the women underneath Mother Earth, I think the object is her ring under her gloves” Licorne says pointing to the monster’s right hand “under that dirt anyway” she adds. Before any could ask her name a beeping is heard and Licorne looks at her anklet “Sorry got to go” she chirps then super jumps far away from the battle. Ladybug gets to her feet and accepts her lucky charm from Rena, her eyes look over the battlefield. 

“Here’s the plan”

Mother Earth pushes away some trees and growls not finding any of the hero’s. A whistle that sounded suspiciously like the twitter notification comes from her left and she sees Paon waving at her. “Hey you got a little dirt on you there” he chirps taking to the air to avoid her fist.

“Nope still there” Chat cries making her turn launch an attack at him, he pounces onto a tree to dodge. A smirk appears on her face and she puts one hand into the ground. Chat tilts his head confused only for a minty scent to reach his senses “oh no”. 

“Chat-“boom “-could you-“boom “-get her off me” Paon screams frantically as Mother’s dirt slashes at him. He takes to the air and looks down to see Chat rolling around in a plant, “oh don’t tell me…”

“Chat got cat nipped” Rena confirms trying to be her own distraction and failing. Mother seemed to have all her interest on Paon, attempting to bury him alive. Bee flashes a thumb up to Ladybug and she uses the cutters on the last rope keeping a large tent down. Bee grabs the free fabric and covers Mother with it, scooping her struggling form above the ground.

“Woo you are gar-done lady” Bee cries holding what had to be thousands of pounds of dirt like it was a pile of grapes. No longer connected to the Earth the dirt falls lifeless revealing the original mother earth form. Ladybug and Rena pounce into the tent and work together to take off the gloves and find a Normal looking ring and a black mark on the skin. It was raised like a bug bite.  
Ladybug places the yo-yo on the bite and a horrible howl comes from Mother. Ladybug rips the yo-yo off and then everyone is blinded by a piercing white light. When Ladybug reopens the yo-yo a puff of white smoke flies out in a much less dramatic way. Bee sets them down while the two share a look of unease, that wasn’t an akuma so what was it?

“Miraculous Ladybug” 

The bugs restore the garden show back to its original state, Mother Earth transforms back into an older lady. Embarrassed by her possession but still believing Mr. Baker didn’t deserve to win. Ladybug and Rena convince her that you can’t always win and sometimes you just had to live with that. Mr. Baker and her end up shaking hands before he accepted his prize for his massive tulips each a different colour of the rainbow. 

Paon flies down to Chat and the others for the “pound it” but the moment of celebration is broken by Chat continuing to act…well high as a kite.

“I guess the cat nip has to wear off naturally” Ladybug muttered as Chat tried to stand up only to fall down in a fit of giggles.

“What you talking about, I’m feline great” Chat giggles accepting Carapace’s hand to get to his feet, Paon has to assist so he didn’t fall over again.

“I’ll take him someplace to cool off” Paon volunteers picking Chat up to sac carry him, Chat whoops as if he was about to ride a bull. He takes two steps than flies onto the nearest rooftop before anyone could argue, once again avoiding the press that were closing in with questions. Ladybug gives a quick statement than heads off before her earrings gave out, the others doing the same. Bee stays behind for two reasons, she still had to give out the other prizes and she wanted to show off her new tool. Now sitting attached to her hip like Ladybug’s yo-yo.

Paon lands in his room and puts Chat on the unmade bed, “whoa no way Paon you live in a nest” Chat giggled snuggling into a fluffy blanket. Paon loses the costume and Chat jumps up and gasps dramatically “Paon you’re naked” he cries than falls back laughing. 

“You should remove the costume Adrien, maybe it will make the cat nip wear off faster” Nathaniel suggests which brings Duusu up to speed with recent events. She takes a sandwich out of Nathaniel’s jacket pocket and munches on it watching Chat make a fool of himself. 

“Aren’t you forward” Chat says moving his eyebrows under his mask; Nath doesn’t give any reaction so Chat drops the costume and falls back on the bed. 

Plagg drags his paws down his face and groans “I hate cat nip” he mumbles licking at his paws. 

“Funny I thought you didn’t feel the effects of cat nip when transformed” Duusu chirps earning a glare from the cat kwami.

“Ever since we did that fancy transformation I feel everything the kid goes through” he fake gags and Adrien crumbles up a nearby paper to throw at him missing by a mile.

“You make me think of cheese every five seconds, I don’t even like cheese” Adrien cries loudly. Nath wasn’t sure if his mom was home and sits down by Adrien hoping to keep him quiet. Adrien would not want anyone seeing him like this, just about everything this boy did ended up online as result. Adrien moves to put his head on Nathaniel’s leg and lets out a big sigh. “I don’t like cheese Nath, what kind of cat am I?” Nath doesn’t reply verbally but he does pat Adrien on the head “you’re like a bird right? Do you like birdseed?”

Nath chuckles looking at Duusu’s open bag of seeds sitting by the window, “I mostly use that to feed the other birds” he says pointing to the window as a few song birds flew past. 

“I like birds, birds can fly away from their problems”

Nath bites his lip as Adrien curls into a ball, he removed his hand but Adrien catches it to put it back. “Birds can fly off when problems happen and they don’t look back” Adrien continued slurring slightly. “They don’t get trapped by the past, by things they can’t change” Adrien’s voice shook as he fought back tears. “I found out I had a brother today, did you know that?” he blurted out of the blue.

“Yeah I did actually, found his ghost when I broke into your house to get back Duusu” Nath says matter of factly moving his hand to pet Adrien’s head. Adrien’s sobs turned to hollow giggles and he turns to look at Nath with rather dilated eyes.

“No way, you can see ghosts” he says excitedly then his face grows dead serious “you see dead people” he whispers than giggles again. 

“Yeah I guess I did, didn’t really think about it at the time…he helped me escape the sewing monster that attacked us” Nath didn’t know why he bothered since Adrien likely wouldn’t remember anything, still it was better than letting him cry alone. 

“And I found out you were my magic bird friend” Adrien cooed throwing his arms around Nath and trying to hug him. In his state he was instead lightly smacking Nath’s shoulders before giving up resting on his lap. 

“Yeah…and I found out you were a pun loving cat” Nath’s smile fell slightly when a rumbling sound came from Adrien. He had his eyes closed now and a peaceful smile on his face. Was he…? Nath patted Adrien’s head and the rumble grew louder. Nath bit his lip trying not to laugh, Adrien could purr. 

“Don’t ever stop being my friend” Adrien said softly after a moment.

“I won’t Adrien” Nath answers putting Adrien’s phone on the bedside table, Nino would have to wait until Adrien was back to normal.

“I won’t”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So a few things, I knew about Bee's trompo weapon from the beginning but at the time I had no idea what it was or how to use it. So I took the lazy way out and just invented a new weapon for her as the honey dipper.  
> I have considered writing a more detailed one shot about Emilie and Nathalie's time in the garden, but I don't think I will unless people want to read it.  
> Also I created three people just to make a pun with their names, don't expect them to be any more than that.


	4. Bug in the system

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shu from Feather's up makes a return in this chapter

Chapter 4 game glitch  
Marinette groans and holds her stomach “I don’t ever want to eat frosting ever again” she moans earning some giggles from her computer screen. She was on a group call with Alya and Nino, Adrien was supposed to join them but so far he hadn’t picked up. 

“Hope that doesn’t include ice cream, we’re planning on going to Andre’s ice cream tomorrow” Nino says leaning on one arm. 

“Oh definitely not, no amount of Carapace cupcake trials will put me off his magic ice cream” Marinette replies leaning back on her chair. 

“Just saying it should totally be a peanut butter cupcake with like a bunch of chocolate on the inside” Nino says smirking to something off screen. 

“How come you won’t let your folks create the Lady Noir cupcakes? That’s such a cool idea” Alya asks making Marinette roll her eyes.

“But they’re not a real couple Alya, it’s weird. They were planning on making ones for the royals and Rena pace” Marinette says jumping back as both Nino and Alya make noises of alarm.

“Rena and Carapace, no, no, no” Alya shakes her pointer finger “Carapace is way out of Rena’s league”. 

Nino scowls for half a second “I’ve heard Carapace is already in a relationship, he certainly doesn’t have any feelings for that fox”.

Marinette watches helplessly as her friends argue over her mentioning Rena pace, now would probably not be the best time to mention she shipped those two. Rena couldn’t get her hands off Carapace and he was always looking out for her. “Okay guys I’ll see you tomorrow” she says signing off; her friends give a good bye than continue arguing without skipping a beat. 

“Marinette you have a package” Sabine’s voice calls to upstairs bringing her daughter down. She could save her voice and just text her to come down but where’s the fun in that? Marinette pauses at the Chinese symbols on the top of the box but quickly makes an excuse that it was a health tea she had got at a really good price. 

Marinette closes the door behind her and sets the small box on her desk. Tikki flies out of her purse and studies the box “it’s from Shu” she announces than both choke at the smell.

Holding back a gag Marinette holds up a tea bag with an attached note fluttering to the ground. Tikki quietly reads it than turns to her chosen “Shu wants to further your training in the soul realm”. 

A few minutes later Marinette sits on her bed in her summer pajamas, which had the same pattern as her normal ones but with shorts instead of pants. She’s holding a mug with an apple blossom pattern with a nervous expression. She takes a deep breath “okay let’s get this over with” she mutters than chugs the horrible tea. 

“Ah about time” 

Marinette yelps suddenly in a cloudy area, she gets to her feet and turns to see a Chinese woman sitting in a meditation pose. The woman gets to her feet and walks up to the girl, “good to see both of you again” she says lukewarmly.

“Both of us” Marinette echo’s turning to her right to see Tikki floating beside her.

“Now tell me which knights have appeared, I will train you to defeat them” Shu demanded and listened carefully as Marinette explained a lioness and a unicorn themed person. 

“Hmm pride and lust, dangerous foes to begin with” Shu scratches her chin. “We will start with pride, for she becomes stronger with each knight added to her pride” before Marinette can react Shu’s body burst into flame. When the flames die down Shu is in her dragon costume, a stunning display of power.

“I’ll help out too” Tikki’s body lights up and stretches into a human shape. Marinette’s jaw hits the floor as Tikki transforms into Joan of Arc with a ladybug theme. She turns to Marinette and giggles “sorry forgot to tell you I can transform into past users in here”. Tikki’s voice had changed to match Joan’s, much deeper than normal. 

“Now Marinette transform and watch carefully, Tikki draw your sword” Shu commands activating her weapon. The dragon shaped handle spitting out a long tongue ready to whip. Tikki does as ordered and the clouds change into an endless grassy field. Marinette uses the technique she learned the first time she was in the soul realm to turn into Ladybug. 

“The lioness of Pride is a fearless monstrous foe, her flames will burn you to ash if you let her” Shu cries activating the flames on her weapon acting as the lioness. Tikki dodged the whip than uses her sword to block the flames Shu shot from her mouth. 

“You must not show mercy, for she will kill you without hesitation. She is a demon of fire; evil is its purest form”.

 

Walking on sunshine plays loudly over the sound of a shower, inside Kagami is singing along in the worst English imaginable. She sounds like an average American kid trying to sing an anime theme song. The morning sun peeking through the bathroom’s covered window. Purrde is outside the shower dancing along to the song in the air, it took some explaining for her to understand the “magic sound box” was for fun and not a weapon.

“Come on Max you could totally use me to model for your hero character” Kim says striking a few poses. The two were in Max’s room crowded around his fancy computer, Max was currently typing down code for a game. 

“As fun as that would be I already have a hero character” Max says adjusting his glasses. He clicked open character files to show off the female and male hero avatars, the girl in a red spotted hoodie and the boy in a black cat eared hoodie. It didn’t take much to figure out who the inspiration of the characters were. “Besides how could you handle facing enemies like this?” he adds clicking the file open to reveal a giant spider with red eyes, Kim flinches than pouts.

“I could handle that” he pushes Max aside to flip through the other enemy files, than stops at one that looked like a giant electric eel. It’s eyes were huge and its mouth was open like it saw Ladybug drop her costume in front of it. 

“That thing looks ridiculous” Kim laughs at the creature on screen. 

“That’s the point” Max insisted. Above them from the window a mosquito with a bright red belly buzzes in, flying around them then crawling inside the computer. “The eel can consume everything in its path, making it one of the most dangerous enemies that can only be killed by…” he stops hearing an alarm from his computer. Code starts scrolling by quickly and Max starts typing to find the problem, “what the hell?”

The screen turns black than a buzzing sound comes from it, the boys cover their ears backing away in confusion. Than two red eyes appear on the screen, Max and Kim scream as the creature breaks though the computer and attacks. Max grabs a small mirror on his bed and holds it up for the light to reflect off the sun into the creatures eyes. The boys are frozen as the creature roars and things crash around them, when Max opens his eyes his room is completely empty. There was a big hole in the wall where the creature escaped. 

A few hours later Chloe and Sabrina were shopping in their favorite mall, each carry three bags worth of clothing. Chloe was currently studying a display of miraculous themed clothing with a frown. As one would expect the Ladybug and Chat Noir models were at the front, posed in ways that were supposed to be heroic. The ladybug mannequin wore a spotted crop top, black yoga shorts and a yo-yo shaped purse clung to its side. The Chat Noir model wore a black tank top with a large green paw print in the centre; it was also holding a silver baton for decoration and had a cap with cat ears. 

She heads inside and gasps at the sight in the corner, the Queen Bee merchandise was in the sale bin! “There better be a good explanation for this” she growls picking up a yellow shirt with Queen Bee posing for the camera. 

“It’s simple really, no one likes yellow” a store employee said while folding some shirts across from them. 

Chloe puts a hand over her chest horrified, “that’s ridiculous it’s Queen Bee, she’s like everyone’s favorite after Ladybug”. The employee shrugs and goes to help another customer leaving Chloe to rummage through the clothing. She turns to Sabrina so quickly the timid girl flinches “Sabrina your favorite hero is Queen Bee right?”

Sabrina coughs nervously “yes of course Chloe, although if I would have to pick a second favorite it would be Rena Rouge I just love her-”. Sabrina stops herself by habit of knowing Chloe was only after what she wanted to hear. Chloe smirks turning back to the shirt in her hands and yelps as a sharp stinger goes into her side, she glares daggers down at the little being hidden in her purse. 

“The uh tag jabbed me” She mutters not looking at Sabrina’s confused face. Chloe sighed knowing what the sting meant “sorry tell me why Rena Rouge is so great” she added resisting making a pouty “you happy now?” Face towards the purse. Luckily Sabrina eagerly goes to explain how she loves Rena’s hair and just how sweet she is to younger kids. 

In the change room with several dresses and skirts Chloe opens her purse and grabs Pollen out. “Are you seriously still stinging me? I put up with it last year but I’ve had enough” she snaps letting Pollen go to float in the air. 

“I’m going to keep stinging you so long as you keep being a jerk to your friends and classmates, a Queen can’t be a bully” Pollen threw back matching Chloe’s sour expression.

“I’m not being a jerk to Sabrina; I just wanted her to confirm her favorite hero was me” 

Pollen slapped her forehead softly, some days it felt like she was making real progress with Chloe’s pain in the butt attitude. Other days it was like trying to mix molasses with honey, slow, tiring and a waste of energy. “She shouldn’t feel like she can’t talk about her interests with you Chloe, it’s your duty to be welcoming and friendly” it felt like this was the thousandth time she had said this.

“It’s your duty to be welcoming and friendly” Chloe mimics making her voice low and dumb. Pollen scowls and opens her mouth to snap but a crash outside shuts her up. Chloe peeks outside to see a giant red eel eating everything in sight. Chloe shut the curtain and turns to Pollen “this isn’t over, Pollen stingers out”. 

A few minutes later a group of kids were sitting around the bridge, Marinette and Adrien already with their cones. Marinette was staring so hard at Adrian’s ice cream flavours hers was starting to melt onto her hand. Nino stepped back with his own cone in hand to share with Alya; Alya couldn’t help but notice what flavors were chosen. Rocky road, tigers tail and mint chocolate chip. Alya tried to concentrate on helping Marinette not make a fool of herself by bringing her attention back to her cone. But her mind was elsewhere. Rocky road should mean Nino but mint chocolate chip? There was only one person that came to mind from that and she didn’t like it. 

Nathaniel was last, smiling shyly at Andre as he pondered before deciding on the flavours. It had pale blue cotton candy for their eyes, an acidic yellow lemon for the hair and strawberry for their lips. He takes a first lick watching Adrien bite into his ice cream like some kind of Satan spawn. He’s about to use one of the spoons to give Duusu a bite of the cotton candy only for a scream to stop his hand. He turns just in time for Queen Bee to crash into him, knocking the ice cream to the ground. 

“Look out” Bee shouts grabbing Nathaniel by the shoulders and flying them both out of the way of a large eel. The demon was about the size of a car and had a mouth big enough to swallow things twice its size. Andre quickly finishes packing up to move his shop away from its tail. The snake lunges after Bee who screams and kicks at its eyes. 

“Use your scepter” Marinette cries making a megaphone with her hands. 

“He ate that” Bee cries still holding poor Nathaniel as she dodges another strike. 

“Use that top thing” Alya shouts taking a photo with her phone which was going on hero’s embarrassing moment’s page.

“He ate that too” Bee squeaks finally putting Nath down and distracting the eel so he could run away. “This stupid fish thing eats everything” she adds avoiding its next attack only for it to grab hold of Andre’s shop and swallow it in one gulp than Andre himself. Bee’s face grows red with rage and she gets a hit on its snout before she’s back to rapidly dodging its strikes.

Marinette looks at her half-finished cone sadly; alas she had a job to do. Her friends had already run off in different directions to hide. A few feet away Max and Kim were running following the path of destruction. They get a glimpse of the creature before it bounces off like a Mario chain chomp, Max groans slowing to catch his breath. “We’re never going to catch it” he moans in between huffs of breath.

“I’m faster I’ll pass the message to Ladybug” Kim offers grabbing the flashlight out of Max’s hand before he could answer. Max reaches with his hand but his voice is too quiet for the hot headed athlete to hear.  
He groans and his head falls into his hands “come on Max think, there has to be something we can do”.

“Wings flutter” Juleka whispers inside her closet sucking Nooroo into the miraculous on her wrist. With a purple flash she disappears and Chrysalid takes her place. “Okay…” she starts only for four butterflies to land on her head eagerly “hey one at a time guys”. She waves them away then chooses one to land on her cane; the others almost pout fluttering around her. Chrysalid rolls her eyes “you’ll get your turn soon enough, don’t be like that”.

The powered butterfly takes off towards its target, Max was back to running towards the snake demon. What exactly he planned to do once he got there is unclear. The butterfly was right above him when another red bellied mosquito suddenly jumps out from the shadows and attacks the butterfly. It uses its needle mouth to stab the butterfly and the red belly disappears. The butterfly spasms in pain as its purple wings are over taken by a dark red. The dark butterfly resumes its flight as if nothing had happened and absorbs into Max’s glasses. 

“Hi I’m Chrysalid I…” Chrysalid trails off at the static sounds that were coming her way, which was unusual. “Are you okay? Max?” she asks gasping as the butterfly mask around her face turns a deep red.

The static gets louder and a high pitched squeal makes Chrysalid cover her ears, “glitch” whispers in her ear. Before she could respond the mask cracks twice than shatters, Chrysalid cries out in pain. She falls to the ground with her eyes shut; when she opens them despite the headache she tries communication again. When nothing happens she curses and heads to the window her butterfly went out of, although her method of slipping out is much more awkward. Luckily the boat house had a dock on the other side of the window. Chrysalid grabs the back of her hoodie to cover her head and runs to super jump to shore. To her disappointment her jump is normal and not super hero like. She frowns only to gasp as she was lifted into the air; she looks to her sides to see her butterflies lifting her up. Her own wings glow slightly and the butterflies gain the strength to carry her where she wanted to go. 

“Alright let’s try this, lucky-“Ladybug trails off as a black shadow appears under the creature and it falls into it. “Where’d he go?” she asks looking left and right for it to reappear. 

“Uh I think we have bigger problems” Carapace says pointing to a black energy cloud coming towards them. Quickly everyone ducks behind him as he raises his shield, like something out of a matrix movie a green computerized light scans over them then vanishes. The cloud stops at the end of the bridge and Chat walks over to it. When he pokes it an electric shock makes him yelp and jump back. Ladybug looks up to see the cloud was more like a dark smoky dome, trapping them inside. The hero’s back up until they’re all back to back as the city starts to change around them, paint peeling and metal rusting before them. Ladybug turns to give orders to her team only for the world to glitch out, when it recovers half her team is gone. Rena and Carapace look around equally confused. 

“Uh what just happened?” Chat says looking over to Paon and Bee, each exchanging looks of confusion. Now they were standing in what appeared to be the subway, if it had been abandoned for many years. An arrow pointing to tunnels in bright red spray paint stood out amongst the rust and concrete. 

“I ain’t going that way” Bee announces flying to where the doors to the surface would be, smacking into an invisible wall. Paon runs over to catch her before she hit the ground “you have got to be kidding me” she whines holding her nose in pain. A bright green bar appears above her head and shortens slightly. 

“Spawning enemies, invisible walls and health bars…guys I think we’re in a video game” Chat jumps down to where the tunnel started, Paon still carrying Bee close behind. “Paon watch our backs, Bee stay close” Chat orders and spins his baton to a good attacking length. Paon puts Bee down and readies his fans for anything that would come to attack them. Bee crossed her arms frustrated that she had lost her weapons; first grunt she came across was getting a high heel to the eye. 

Kim yelps as the green scan goes over him and the dome traps him like the others, he holds the flashlight close to his chest fighting to remain calm. He jogs several feet and sees two figures in the distance, a woman had crashed her car into the dome and had fallen to the ground. A man was offering his hand to help her up, but something felt wrong. The second the woman touches his hand she tenses and screams. Kim is helpless as her body turns into computer code and absorbs into the man’s arm, than the man looks at him. A lighthearted beep comes from his chest and a 100 appears above his head for a second. He wore some kind of grey bodysuit with many green robotic things attached, brown eyes hidden behind large purple sunglasses. 

“Max?” 

The man’s body stutters like a broken avatar than he’s suddenly right in front of Kim, “its glitch now” he hums voice sounding odd and magnetic. Kim flinches away from his friend’s hand reaching towards him, a yo-yo wraps around Glitch’s arm and pulls him away. Kim cheers in relief seeing Ladybug, Carapace and Rena ready to fight.

“I’m going to guess you’re the one behind this, Rena grab the glasses” Ladybug orders and Rena leaps into action. She flips over the cracked land and goes for the glasses, only for Glitch to glitch again sending her right though him. Before she could recover Glitch grabs her leg, Rena shrieks in pain as her body turns into computer data. 1000 pops up above Glitch’s head and Carapace moves to attack. Ladybug throws her arm in front of him to stop him.

Ladybug redraws her yo-yo as Kim runs out of Glitch’s reach; Glitch doesn’t seem to notice or care. He smirks and reaches for two weapons that appear on his back, pulling out whips which crackled with electricity. “It seems there’s a few bugs still in the system, best I take care of that” Glitch swings the first whip towards Ladybug, Ladybug quickly moves but falls to the ground. She has to roll to avoid the next swing; Glitch swings the whips to build up power.

Suddenly Glitch is cursing and swinging wildly, Ladybug gasps seeing two white butterflies over his eyes. A hand grabs hers and she’s quickly pulled away by a hooded figure, Carapace and Kim following close behind. They move into a building and the figure slams the door shut. 

“Thanks for your help…” Ladybug begins watching the figure secure the door than turn to her. She removes the hood to reveal a black and purple braid and a purple mask hiding their identity. Ladybug’s voice cuts in her throat, glamour or no glamour this wasn’t Rose. 

“I’m sorry this has happened, I intended to make a champion but something went wrong” Chrysalid says taking her wand like stick out of her boots and clicking it into its full cane size. “I’m here to stop him before he hurts anyone else” she added when Ladybug just gawked at her

Ladybug shook her head to stop staring, okay so it wasn’t Rose but clearly whoever this was taking responsibility for their powers. “Okay let’s try and regroup with the others…uh what did you call yourself?” Ladybug says at last, the purple girl smiles shyly and poses with her arms crossed.

“I’m Chrysalid” she says cutely, Ladybug finds herself smirking.

Kim coughs in order to gain their attention, “you’re the one turning people into hero’s right, please let me help Max” he pleads to Chrysalid.

Chrysalid’s eyes light up “I can feel the potential in you” she says and a white butterfly flies out from her sleeves and onto her cane. Ladybug watches as the glass part glows and Chrysalid concentrates her power over it. Chrysalid grunts and her face strained but nothing came out, the butterfly remained white. Chrysalid stops trying and looks to the floor “I’m sorry, I’m just not strong enough to make another champion”. 

Ladybug puts a hand on her shoulder seeing the girl’s lip tremble “you’re still new to this super hero business, you’ll get stronger” she says with an encouraging smile.

“We can work together another time, I’m sure we’ll make an awesome team” Kim adds striking a super hero pose. If he intended to make them laugh it succeeded, Chrysalid puts on a brave face. 

“Come on let’s find the others…” Carapace says opening a door and stepping though, the others follow and are stunned to see a city of blocks. 

“That’s not normal” Ladybug mutters spotting plenty of black area that looked straight out of a unfinished city model. 

 

“I TOLD YOU GOING INTO A TUNNEL WAS A BAD IDEA” Bee screams holding onto Paon with all her might.

“HOW WAS I SUPPOSED TO KNOW IT WAS A CHASE LEVEL?” Chat screams back running on all fours to gain some speed away from the train chasing after them. Paon spots a crack in the wall up ahead and spins to smash it with his back feathers. He’s left with a hole in the wall they could slip though, he pushes Bee into it and Chat is eager to follow. Paon manages to slip though half a second before the train passes over them, Chat gives Paon a high five “good eye Paon”. 

Chat’s baton starts ringing and he answers it on the second ring “Chat, where are you? We’re in some kind of…” she trails off trying to think of the words. 

“We’re in a video game Ladybug, you look like you’re in an area that hasn’t loaded yet” Chat says seeing the bland shapes behind her, as well as another girl in a purple mask, Carapace and Kim. 

That’s good to know, you guys don’t let Glitch touch you. He downloaded Rena already” Carapace says matter of factly. 

Chat doesn’t like the sound of that, or the way the world was glitching again. Once it had settled they’re standing on top of the buildings of Paris, “okay looks like we have to play the game to find each other”.

“Max programmed ten levels, good luck guys” Ladybug says than ends the call.

Both parties begin their journey through the game, since most of it was still unfinished there was a lot of running though unloaded city. Eventually all meet up on what had to be the final boss level, which was another rooftop but there was a rain in effect. Before introductions could be made there’s a loud electric laugh. Glitch rises from below standing atop the eel, Kim gulps as some of the giant spiders start crawling towards them as well.

“I hate these kind of boss battles, fight me you coward” Bee cries shaking her fist at Glitch. Ladybug uses her yo-yo to kill three spiders with one swing while Paon blows others off the roof. 

Kim backs up as three big spiders crowd around him, his foot bumping into a baseball bat. Chrysalid steps in front of him and draws her sword. Her steps are clumsy so her first strike is dodged easily and she’s hit by the spiders poison spit. Chat steps beside her “put your feet like this and then strike” he instructs quickly adjusting her stance. He does the same with his baton and side by side they take down two of the big spiders. They cheer and high five not paying attention to the last one sneaking up behind them.

Kim gives a war cry and wacks the spider on the head, the spider does it’s dying animation and 100 pops up above Kim’s head. 

The victory doesn’t last as Glitch charges down with the eel’s mouth ready to eat them. They manage to dodge the mouth but both Chat and Chrysalid get hit by its electric tail. Their health bars appearing and getting cut in half. Bee fires herself at Glitch high heel stinger ready to plunge, Glitch merely smirks and hits her with his electric whips. Bee fly back and crashes into Paon, he can only watch as her health goes to zero and poofs into computer data. 

The data flies over to Glitch and a new item appears on his belt. He pulls it off and fires a yellow gun at Carapace who quickly uses his shield to block. Glitch frowns and the eel takes off into the sky, everyone screams as lightning strikes fire down. Paon launches himself into Kim to save him from being fried, the two still end up losing a third of their health. 

“Nothing is hitting the eel” Carapace cries after trying an attack with the shield, which just ends up flying back to him with enough speed his health drops to half.

Kim’s eyes light up “Max programmed that thing with one weakness-“he pulled out the flashlight from his pocket. Kim football throws it to Carapace who catches it right as the eel was in front of him. With the flash light in its eyes the eel screams and crashes down onto the roof. Glitch pounces from above and strikes Carapace with the whips, Carapace’s shield managed to prevent him from losing all his health. 

In a rage Glitch doesn’t notice Chat and Chrysalid behind him until they unleashed their team attack. Chat hits low knocking Glitch into the air and Chrysalid slashes him eight times in the air. “SWORD DUO” they cry during the final strike that sends him flying across the roof. Glitches health appears above his head dropping to one hit left, everyone circles Glitch ready to finish this. 

Glitch gets to his feet with a dark smile on his face “doesn’t matter if you defeat me, the game will just start over” Glitch moves quickly and shoots the gun at Ladybug, Chat pushed her out of the way before she got hit. Ladybug mouths a silent no as that was his final hit; she grits her teeth and throws her yo-yo up.

“Lucky charm” Ladybug cries and catches a tiny ladybug key chain, “what the heck am I supposed to do with this?” 

“You’ll think of something Ladybug, you always do” Chat says before his health bar hits zero and he suffers the same fate as Bee. Ladybug growls as Glitch laughs and pulls out a new weapon from his belt, cat paw shaped bombs. Paon in his rush to avoid them crashes into Carapace sending them both to the other side of the battle field at high speeds. Ladybug squints as they fall slightly slower than normal, her eyes light up with an idea. With the whips, gun and now bombs in play the game couldn’t keep up. She runs towards Glitch glancing at her charm with a smirk, a bug in the system indeed. 

“Everyone use your special attack, we’re going to overload the system and make it crash” Ladybug orders sticking her tongue out to get Glitch to fire at her. 

Paon looks at Carapace and they both shrug, worth a shot. 

“Shell shock” Carapace goes first and fires the electrified shield towards the sky, it hits an invisible wall and the sky program turns into a blue screen. Glitch curses and tries to attack Paon before he could fire his move, but Ladybug wrapped him in her yo-yo before he had the chance. 

Paon throws his arms forward “Royal strike” the resulting wind rips apart the landscape turning it into blue screens or red error signs. By the time the wind ends the team is now standing on nothing but a blue error screen, Glitch can’t move as Chrysalid walks over and takes his glasses.

“Now to see what went wrong” Chrysalid says cracking open the glasses taking his last health point and releasing the butterfly inside. She gasps at its red colour; Ladybug is quick to catch it before it flew off. Max reappears as the blue screen vanishes placing everyone back in Paris.

“Miraculous Ladybug” 

The buildings repair themselves and the people return as if they never disappeared. Chat reforms in front of Ladybug and she happily goes for a pound it. Carapace watches as Paon catches Bee before she hits the ground. The possible shipping fuel is then wrecked when Bee’s dipper appears and smacks into them. Carapace laughs only for someone to fall from the sky and by instinct he catches her. 

“Nice catch Shelly” Rena says warmly but then her ears droop and she quickly squirms out of his hold. “Let’s go…don’t want to miss the fist bump” she says rather quickly, her face grew warm and she doesn’t dare look him in the eye. 

“What happened to you little guy?” Chrysalid asks the butterfly as it lands on her finger and crawls onto her hand. A beeping comes from her hand and she sees one wing of her miraculous had disappeared. 

“What happened?” Max mutters taking Kim’s hand to get him to his feet. 

“Dude you just became a super akuma” Kim blurts telling Max everything that happened in an extreme manner. 

Ladybug puts her hand on Chrysalid’s shoulder “I know you didn’t mean for this to happen but maybe you should avoid using your power until we can find what caused this”. Chrysalid nods looking down at her butterfly and seeing it was favoring one side over the other. Everyone says their goodbyes and goes off to lose the costume.

 

“I’m telling you Max I beat one of those giant spider things” Kim repeats once they were back in Max’s room. 

Max chuckles finishing the first draft of the new character model. “Sure you did Kim” he teases spinning around in his computer chair to face him. 

“I did, I’m not scared of any eight legged spider now” Kim beams proudly only to feel something land on his shoulder. He turns his head to see a giant spider with purple legs bouncing on him, he screams and falls over the bed.

“You sure about that” Alix teases giving the toy spider a squeak. Both she and Max burst out laughing. Kim head poked out shyly with a pair of shorts covering his head.

“Oh ha, ha very funny” Kim snaps sticking his tongue out, mind already racing with ways to get even. The others continue to laugh at him not taking notice to the ordinary mosquito buzzing out of the computer and flying out the window.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And thus the evil mosquito's come into play, who have the power to create super Akuma's. I'll admit originally I planned for this chapter to be full of video game nonsense but I've kind of lost steam. This clearly isn't as good as Feathers up is, or maybe I got lucky the first time. Either way I'm going to continue working on this since I have like four pages worth of story ideas and there's no sense wasting them.  
> We still have to get Raion's pride together after all.


	5. Red and Blue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A glimpse of Luka and Nathaniel's past and the water park of my dreams.

Chapter 5 Red and blue  
Rose hummed a cheerful song as she put vanilla into the mixing bowl, she wiped her hands on her pink apron and went to check the oven.  
Miyuu zips over beside her as she turns on the light to check the cupcakes inside “this is incredible, how did you manage to tame the steel dragon?” 

Rose giggled “with a little bit of pixie dust and butterfly wings” she joked not noticing Miyuu had taken it seriously. The kwami quickly followed her back to the icing bowl while keeping an eye on the “dragon” just in case it turned on them. Rose started up the mixer while Miyuu watched hiding behind her neck, “here Miyuu try some” Rose finishes the icing and pops off the parts coated in icing.

Miyuu hesitates but accepts the whisk as Rose started enjoying hers without any trouble. As soon as the sweet smelling gooey substance touched her tongue Miyuu thought she was in heaven. 

“My special feel better vanilla cupcakes are nothing without their icing” Rose announces putting on some oven gloves with pink hearts on them. The oven beeped indicating it was done and Miyuu yelped and hid behind Rose again. 

Once the cupcakes were out and cooled Miyuu assists with the icing and decorating. “Why are we making feel better cupcakes again?” Miyuu asks innocently, Rose finishes the final touches of one cupcake with a bat shaped sugar cookie. 

“Juleka seemed upset at band practice today, I’m going to give these to her tomorrow to help her smile again” Rose explained putting the dishes in the sink.

“You really love her don’t you” it was more a statement then a question but Rose agrees with a slight blush. Miyuu’s smile withered when a sharp pain came from her gut, hunger pains were something she was used to after transforming and using her power. But this felt much worse; Miyuu forces herself not to show pain as she assists Rose in putting away the cookie cutters. Something was wrong, but she didn’t know what it was. 

Juleka was curled up inside her closet, her phone off and the window shut tight. Nooroo was in her arms his soft cries the only sound in the room. It wasn’t fair; finally he was going to be used for good only for it to be corrupted. Nooroo had felt the same pain that Juleka did when their connection severed, but he had taken it much harder. Juleka looked up from the sobbing kwami to her poor butterfly; it lay on a scarf in front of them barely moving. She had placed a tiny bowl of sugar water for it to feed from, but unlike the others he hadn’t touched it. When she got home she had checked the insect and found a needle like hole in its thorax, she had put a tiny bandage on it to help it recover. 

“Nooroo you should eat” Juleka said softly, moving Nooroo to one hand to pick up his favorite salted caramel pudding. Nooroo whimpered but took the spoon she offered, the salty treat blending with his tears. “We’ll get through this Nooroo, we won’t stay in the background and let others get hurt” she adds gently wiping his tears away. “Next time we’ll be right next to our champion, fighting among side them” Nooroo looks up at her and forces a small smile. 

“You’re right Jul, we can’t let this evil win” as if on cue the injured butterfly flew to Juleka’s hand and flapped his wings in encouragement. After a few minutes Juleka changed into her pajamas and crawled into bed, Nooroo settled comfortably into a bed she had made for him with a few silk scarves. 

Luka laid down on his bed and closed his eyes. A second passes and he flips onto his stomach and grabs at a wooden board on the floor. It moves away and he pulls out a hidden item inside, a walkie-talkie shaped like a clam shell. Written in faded pink glitter was the word captain, how long had it been since they last used these? 

There was something else hidden under the floor, a small box with a bow. Luka brought both up onto his bed and stared at them in silence until his vision became blurry. Looking at them he remembered meeting Nathaniel for the first time, they were like six or seven at the time. Most people don’t remember much from that age but then most people have never met a mermaid.

It was summer and his family was enjoying the public pool. He was going through that phase where he carried his favorite toy around with him everywhere, a “golden” pirate coin he found in a hidden treasures set. 

Normally he kept the coin in his pocket but that day he was trying to do a coin trick against his mother’s warning. This resulted in the coin rolling off his arm and into the deep end of the pool. Luka could swim but at seven years old there was no way he could dive down and get it. He sat down staring at the coin down below; suddenly a long haired figure grabbed his coin. Luka watched wide eyed as they examined the coin underwater, he had never seen hair that red. The mermaid looked up and shot towards him, their eyes were beautiful. Like an ocean on a clear summer day. 

“Take a picture, it will last longer” 

Luka yelped and fell back; the mermaid gave an amused chuckle. Now that he had a closer look the mermaid wasn’t a mermaid at all. Just a boy with long hair, the boy held out the coin “this is yours?”

“Yes my pirate coin” Luka cried reaching for it. The boy pulled his hand back and his eyes narrowed with suspicion. 

“Are you a pirate?”

Luka smirked and sat back proudly “I sure am, live on a ship and everything”. He loved to brag about his home, he would tell everyone in his class stories about his pirate adventures. “The names Luka by the way…could I please have my coin back?”

“I didn’t know pirates said please” the boy chirped handing back the coin. “I’m Nathaniel” he added brushing some of his bangs out of his face. 

“Well you have to be polite to mermaids so they don’t send a storm your way” Luka said without thinking, tossing the coin in the air then placing it in his swimsuit pocket. 

“I think you mean merman” Nathaniel said indicating this wasn’t the first time he’s been called that. 

Luka grinned ear to ear “you wanna play with me?”

They were practically best friends after that, red and blue, merman and pirate. Luka would never forget Nathaniel’s face when he saw his house boat, or the present he got him for his eighth birthday two clam shell walkie-talkie’s, after a while they were used long after the sun went down. 

“How’s the sea tonight Cyan?” Luka asked into the device using Nathaniel’s merman name. 

“Just thunder tonight, I’ll be okay” Nath replies after a moment of silence. They had created a code that fit perfect with their favorite game. If Nathaniel was a merman that would mean his father was King Triton, which means he made storms.  
Most nights were just thunder (yelling) other nights had lightning (he’s hit something). Sometimes it was calm waters, other times it was a storm. 

“Captain the waters are bad, the waves are high and the winds are harsh”

Luka jumped off his bed and threw open the window “ships open climb aboard”. After about ten minutes Luka perked at the sound of the sheets tied outside straining against Nathaniel’s weight. They exchange quiet hellos and Nathaniel crawls into the bed Luka would make out of a big blue blanket. How long he stayed Luka had never found out, Nath would be gone by the time he woke up next morning

“Ready Carapace” Paon asks glancing at his patrol partner for the night. They stood in front of the River Seine, almost glowing in the moonlit night. Carapace nodded and Paon took off, gaining speed by running down the road and back again. With a flap of the fans he launches across the river, Carapace times his throw then chucks the shield underneath him. The shield acted as a flotation device preventing Paon from landing in the water. “Not bad I didn’t even touch the water that time” Paon yells using his fans to surf the shield back to shore.

“Thanks for helping me train tonight, I don’t want my arm getting rusty with all these new demons around” Carapace says putting the shield on his back. Paon frowned looking back at the water, a look he did when he was frustrated. 

“I have no idea how many Le Paon hit with the darkened soul strike, how many corrupt are still out there unable to get help” Paon tensed as Carapace put an arm around his shoulders. 

“A bunch of kids having to clean up the mess of an adult, what else is new?” Carapace jokes and earns a hushed chuckle from Paon. Carapace takes his arm off and stretches his arms unable to hold back a yawn “I think we should call it a night, no bad guys or knights of sin around”.

“You just want to go check on your girlfriend don’t you?” Paon teased placing his fans on little patches on his sleeves. These allowed him to flick them back into his hands the fastest way possible, and of course while giving a grand display of feathers,

Carapace’s mask didn’t give him the benefit of hiding his blush, the turtle turned away with his lips in a pout. “Maybe I do, what’s wrong with that?” he intended to sound cool and collected but it came out as more of a squeak.

“Nothing, just make sure no one sees you” Paon replied putting on hand on his hip and turning to the water. “I think I’m going to do one more lap before I turn in, see you later” without waiting for a reply he takes off so fast his image was a blur. Carapace takes off much slower and makes sure he isn’t followed as he heads to Alya’s. 

Paon loved the wind, the way it blew his hair back. The sound of it as it zips past his ears and his eyes slightly tearing up. His fans flipped into his hands and he launched himself onto the rooftops, but after only a minute he became frustrated. He had to slow down slightly in order to jump to the next roof; he felt he could go faster. He dropped down below in front of the River Seine at the edge of Paris; there weren’t a lot of people around. Once the wind stopped Paon listened to the sounds of the water flowing past, normally he didn’t give the rather polluted river a second glance. But tonight he had an idea.

Paon took a few steps back than shot towards the water, the wind greeting him once again. He kept running and let out a gleeful laugh seeing he was staying afloat. He flapped the fans to go faster, water sprayed around him and got caught in the wind. 

Luka leaned on the edge of the house boat watching the water slap the boat. In his hands he held the small box with a bow; really he should just get rid of it. He brings it up to throw it into the water but stops when he hears feet land on wood. He turns to see Paon Bleu standing on the edge of the bow; he was staring off into the distance with a breathless expression. Paon’s head turned to meet his and water sprayed behind him, finally catching up with the speedster. To Luka it was like seeing a water spirit, the mist washed over Paon mixing with the moonlight. It was almost as if the hero was glowing, his eyes were the most striking which captivated Luka. He had never really noticed the blue hero before; he would fly away before reporters could catch him, stood in the background of most shots of the whole team. Paon seemed to notice Luka’s staring and a smirk formed on the hero’s face, the water fell back but the glowing lingered a second longer. Luka is speechless as Paon takes off without a word vanishing into the night.

Luka manages to head back into his room and he goes to place the box in his drawer under his bed. He pauses when his eye catches something sitting on his speaker, he reaches for it and finds a brooch he didn’t remember owning. It was shaped like a large tail fin with several different shades of blue. He turns it over and finds the edge of the fins were hardened plastic, like a guitar pick. 

“Nice to meet you kid” a gruff voice calls from his window, Luka’s mouth falls for the second time that night.

“When is Marinette coming? The parks been open for an hour” Nino complained leaning against the wall to stay in the shade. 

“Marinette being late isn’t new, probably slept in again” Alya says cleaning her glasses. “Let’s just go in and meet up at lunchtime” the rest of the group agreed and followed her though the entrance. This was the grand opening of the biggest water park in Paris, the aqua kingdom, with tons of water slides, a giant wave pool, and a food court on a pirate ship. The place was bound to be packed so staying outside to wait for Marionette was foolish. 

They split up to drop their stuff off in the change rooms, some agreeing to start on the twister slide. This was a slide that honestly reminded Nathaniel more of a toilet than anything else. He ducks into a stall to change and pauses when he goes to take off his shirt. His eyes on his miraculous, he would have to keep the shirt on.

“No, no stop” Duusu hisses flying out of his bag, Nath manages not to jump back in surprise. “You can’t go out there with that shirt on, you’ll look ridiculous” she says pointing to his shirt.

Nath looks at his usual orange shirt, the swim trunks didn’t go up as high as his shorts letting some of his very pale stomach to peek out. “well I can’t just take it off, what about the miraculous?” he hisses back careful no one outside heard them. Duusu scratches her chin then her face lights up with an idea, Nath watches as she grabs the brooch off his chest and flies behind his head. She ignored his noise of confusion as she pulled his hair into a low ponytail and attached the miraculous to the elastic. 

“Perfect, now that shirt won’t slow us down” She chirps floating back to admire her work. With a squeal she jumps into his swimsuit pocket “now don’t stay too long underwater, I may be unable to drown but I enjoy breathing”.

Adrian couldn’t believe his luck, not only had the gorilla approved of him going to Nino’s for dinner but he got to spend the entire day at this huge water park. For a moment he just stood there in awe of the slides, watching others from his class make their way to them. Kim and Alix had already gotten on the lifeguards watch list for running, Mylene was turning white looking at the black widow slide Ivan was going to first. Juleka and Rose were going to the wave pool, for some reason Juleka had kept her mirror bracelet on. His arm is suddenly pulled by Nino “dude come on the twister waits”. 

Nino is first to go down the slide, everyone gets a view of him shooting out of the tube into the swirling part. Adrien burst out laughing as Nino casually spins around flashing a peace sign than vanishes into the water below. The rest of the class goes until it’s just him and Nathaniel left; Adrian bites his lip nervously as Nath shoots down with enough speed that he misses the spinning altogether and heads straight for the hole. He slams into the other side and yells something rude in German. 

Hours pass of nothing but sweet water slides, the king and queen were the steepest and tallest slides side by side for sliders to race. The sea serpent was a twisty ride with a sudden drop at the end; Niagara falls was a serious of short slides you took in a tube. Then there was the siren, a tube that if done fast enough let you go both upside down and though the aquarium on the bottom floor. Nath understood the name perfectly; it looked both tempting and terrifying.

Nino, Alya, Adrian and Nathaniel had gathered at the pirate ship for a snack when Alya gave a small cheer looking at her phone. “Marinette says she’s just on her way” she announces stealing the last French fry from Nino’s basket.

“Do you landlubbers want some more of our endless curly fries?” a voice giving its best pirate accent said behind her. Alya turns to greet the teen dressed in the restaurants uniform, a white shirt with blue stripes and a pirate hat on his blue streaked hair.

“Luka, I didn’t know you worked here” Adrien chirped smiling brightly at him.

Luka smiled sheepishly “yeah I need a new speaker...my last one got a little wet” he dropped the accent thankfully. He glanced over at Nathaniel who was staring at the drink in his hands; he didn’t bother trying to get Nath to talk.

“I thought Rose’s salary was for the band” Adrien scratched his head trying to remember that conversation. His eyes fell on a brooch attached to Luka’s shirt, it went with the theme but none of the other workers were wearing them. Maybe it was a promotional item? 

“Yeah but it was kind of sudden, I don’t want to burden her with that” Luka said grabbing the empty fries baskets. “So are ye wanting more fries?” he stretched out the R making everyone but Nathaniel giggle.

“I’m going to do it” Kim yells starting to run towards the siren, one of the lifeguards grabs him by the shoulder.

“Kim I’m serious stop running you will get hurt” Ondine snapped resting her hands on her hips. Kim stammers an apology as Alix manages to walk to the slide with a “ha, ha I got to ride first” kind of smile. Ondine lets Kim go and signals to her fellow guards she was okay, a man with the standard red lifeguard uniform and a big furry mustache approached her.

“I’ll cover for you, Samantha wants to talk to you” he said and Ondine’s face flashed with concern. But she quickly nods and heads into the staff room.

Inside Samantha sat in the corner of the room fighting back tears as she loudly sobbed. Sam’s blonde pigtails stand out against her red uniform and the blue tile. Ondine sat beside her as she struggled to get a grip, “Ondine I’m an awful guard, my first day and a kid almost drowns” she wails.

“It was an accident Sam; you did exactly what you should do” Ondine states making Sam look at her. “The kid didn’t follow the no diving in the wave pool rule and hit his head, but you spotted him right away and got him out before any damage could be done”.

“But I should have noticed he was going to dive, what if I get fired for this?” Sam accepts the tissue Ondine gave her and blows her nose. Her shoulders tense “what if I get akumantized for this? I don’t want to be an akuma” she scrunches up the tissue.

“You’ll be fine, no evil butterfly is getting in here” Ondine says helping Sam to her feet “and you shouldn’t get fired, remember you scored higher than me on guard tests. Not to mention you make me eat your bubbles when we race” Sam sucked in her tears and smiled weakly.

“Thanks Ondine I…” Sam’s eyes widen as something burns on her neck, panic flows though her seeing a black bug bite on her chest. A giant mosquito flew off it satisfied with its work.

Sam starts to hyperventilate as her skin darkens and starts to grow “Ondine what’s happening?” Ondine can’t speak as her friend grows in size and her human features give way to dark blue scales. “ONDINE HELP ME!” 

Outside Ladybug lands on the roof of the aqua kingdom and quickly rushes to the ground, she was so late. She just had to stay up late watching Netflix, this time the sleeping in excuse was real. The fact she was going to see Adrien in his swimsuit again was what pushed her to swing all the way over here at record speed. She lands behind the building and lets her costume fall; Tikki gives her a wink as she prepared to head inside. Suddenly there’s a roar coming from inside, Marinette gulps and peeks in through the back door. 

Long blue tentacles were wrapped around some slides and into the pool, all connecting to a blue figures head. She looked like she was made out of water with a dark blue bathing suit, she pointed at a group of people eating next to the pool and her hair tentacle shot towards them, before they could react they’re trapped in a bubble of ice. “If you cannot follow the rules then you cannot play in the park” she screeched voice sounding like it was underwater. 

Marinette frowned; she just couldn’t go one day without something crazy happening.

Although most of Paris was used to akuma attacks it didn’t mean they didn’t panic when one occurred out of nowhere. The group breaks up finding somewhere to hide, Nino sneaks into a closet, Adrien ducks into the steam room bag in tow. Alya was about to duck behind a stack of chairs when a familiar scream gets her attention, she gasps seeing her sisters Ella and Etta stuck in a rescue donut. No time to transform Alya rushes over and helps them out of the pool. 

A sharp whistle makes her jump, the water creature points her finger and the water reaches out of the pool and grabs Alya. The water rushes over her head and Alya nearly loses all her air when her necklace is pulled off by the currents. The necklace sinks to the cloudy bottom and Alya tries desperately to break herself free from the tentacle grabbing her.

A guitar strums making Alya believe she was starting to hallucinate, that is until she saw a figure swimming towards her. Icy blue eyes smiled at her from behind a black mask, the water calms around them releasing Alya from its grip. The masked figure smiles gently and Alya shot up so quickly she’s out of the water in seconds. Before she could put together what happened Carapace scoops her up and runs behind the twins carrying her princess style. 

“Nath where are we going, the change rooms are over there” Duusu pokes her head out as Nath rushes up the stairs to a slide. People down below were trampling over each other trying to get away from the creature, some slipping on the wet surface and falling to the ground. The life guards were quickly trying to get everyone to safety but instead attracted the attention of the creature. Their rescue buoy’s came to life and wrap around them making them fall to the ground unable to get free. 

“Everyone is going that way, we need a private place to transform” Nath replies sitting down and pushing off into the dark blue tube.

“Sam, stop this” Ondine cries trying unsuccessfully to free the life guard with the big mustache. The creature moves her face close to Ondine’s baring her sharp shark teeth. 

“I am Queen Aqua and I will protect my kingdom” she hissed raising her hand to strike her.

Paon Bleu fires out of the water slide and grabs Ondine before Aqua could react; he flips the much taller girl into his arms. With impressive speed he flies them through the doors to the lobby, “you stay here, we’ll save your friend” he says taking off. Ondine raises her hand and calls for him but he’s already gone. 

Juleka gasped at the strong feeling that shook though her, a worthy champion had appeared. She’s about to run into a private change room when Ladybug swings over her head.  
She meets up with Chat Noir and Carapace to make a plan to get everyone out. Paon was keeping Aqua distracted by making himself a target but he couldn’t keep that up forever.  
Aqua could disappear and reappear anywhere there was water, which was sure to confuse him. The place was too large and there was too many people still needing to evacuate. Juleka clenched a fist; she knew what she had to do. 

Ondine sat down on the floor grumbling in distress, her friend begged for her help but what could she do? A butterfly with purple wings and golden tips flies over to her and absorbs into the whistle on her wrist. Ondine gasps as the mask glows in front of her face and a soft voice speaks in her head.  
“Swim Savior, I am Chrysalid. I hear your desire to help your friend and I offer you the power to save all those she’s hurting under the control of this evil”.

“What do you want in return?” Ondine asked putting a hand on the glass doors.

Chrysalid chuckled before answering “just let Ladybug handle Aqua and focus on the swimmers, that’s all I ask”.

“Then let’s begin” Ondine says blowing her whistle and standing in a T pose as the purple smoke surrounds her. The fog solidifies into a chrysalis is then cracks once, twice, then rips open with a blinding light. 

Queen Aqua had a fat lifeguard in her grasp with water swirling around her arms “you are the worst of all, you left your post to smoke without telling me”. 

A shrill whistle makes Aqua flinch; before she can react a yellow flotation device is thrown into the fat man’s arms. The rope attached yanks him free of her grasp and into the arms of his savior. Aqua growls at her, she wore a bright red swimming suit with a large purple butterfly on her chest. Around her wrist was the whistle and strapped around her back was the standard lifeguard saving device. “I won’t let you hurt the people you swore to protect Sam” she calls jumping to avoid Aqua’s attack. She climbs on top of the black widow and takes the hand of a child who was frozen in fear at the top, she catches the eye of Ladybug and does some hand signals.

Ladybug blinks having no idea what she just signed, but luckily Chat understood “she’s taking care of the people so we can focus on Aqua”. Ladybug hesitates but then spies Chrysalid waving from the life guards chair, Chrysalid flashes a thumbs up and the butterfly mask forms in front of her face. She had communicated with her champion to grab three boys trapped in pool rope. 

“Put me down I dropped something in the pool” Alya cries trying to get out of Carapace’s grip. The turtle was stronger and put her in a growing crowd outside the park.

“Don’t worry about it, Rena will give it back to you afterwards” Carapace failing not to smirk at the massive pouty face Alya had on. 

“Rena won’t be coming” She grumbled crossing her arms.

“What?” 

Alya’s face flushed “she’s…uh sick” Carapace’s face scrunched with worry then he forces it to remain calm.

“I’ll try to find your stuff, so long as you promise to stay safe” 

Alya nodded cutely making Carapace have to fake a cough to hide the love sick look that sneaked up on him. He ran back inside to get others out knowing full well he would be seeing Alya getting in trouble real soon. 

Paon’s speed hits him on the butt and so did the ground, Aqua laughs at him and slams him into the wall pinning him with her hair. 

“You’re a bit of a hair riser aren’t ya” Chat calls from behind her attempting to use his baton to knock her down. Aqua grabs the baton and swings him away; Chat slams into the ground and into the hot tub. Before he can get out she fires a white beam trapping him in a bubble of ice, Chat pounds the ice with his fists but is unable to break free. 

“Lucky charm” Ladybug summons her power and a pair of googles fall into her hands. She scans the area and idea forms, “Paon, Carapace, get her over to the Siren” Carapace nods throwing the shield to slice the hair tentacles and free Paon. Working together they lured her over to where the siren slide was while Ladybug grabbed a fire extinguisher and rushed up the stairs. She puts on the googles and readies her yo-yo to hit the go button; she had to time it perfectly to avoid the water flying around Aqua like a protective bubble. 

“You are seriously going to make me steam” Aqua screams firing water in all directions, Carapace has the shield to protect him but Paon is exposed. The hot water hits him and he falls like a stone into the pool. 

Carapace moves to dive after him but a hand grabs his shoulder blue eyes meet brown. “I got him” the boys purrs then dives into the pool, quickly Carapace has to avoid Aqua’s next rage filled attack. He has no choice but to trust the stranger in the black and white costume.

Paon groans slowly opening his eyes, his head pounds as he tries to swim to the surface. Two hands grab his torso and he jumps to face them. The figure had black hair with two white patches near his forehead, a black costume that was white on the front. Paon noticed he had a hood by his shoulders and a dorsal fin on his back. The stranger was staring at him transfixed until Paon’s last air bubble escaped him. He grabs Paon and holds him close, and then they both shoot to the surface. 

Paon spat out water and gasped for air, the stranger put a hand on his back while he got a grip on himself. Paon looks up as a guitar starts to play and sees the stranger playing a black guitar. The tune was so gentle Paon’s eyes started to droop, but he forces them open to watch the water around Aqua slow then fall to the ground harmlessly. 

Ladybug’s screams could be heard as she shoots though the siren, Aqua is too distracted trying to get the water to rise again that she doesn’t see Ladybug until it’s too late. Ladybug shoots out of the slide and uses the speed to launch towards her. Ladybug fires the fire extinguisher at her freezing her form solid. From there Ladybug spots the black spot on her chest and places her yo-yo over it. The poison is sucked out and expelled as harmless smoke. 

“Miraculous Ladybug” 

Paon gets to his feet meeting the icy blue eyes again, “uh thanks for saving me” Paon squeaks feeling his face burn under his mask. He can feel it get worse as the stranger smiles and he’s thankful the mask covers most of his face.

“The pleasure is mine beautiful” he purrs dropping his head in a polite bow “I am Gorm Orque the wielder of wrath”. Paon stiffens as Ladybug and Chat land beside him, Ladybug was surely glaring. Gorm’s smile turned sheepish and he takes a step back “I know what you think of me Ladybug but I must ask you to judge me from my actions and not from the wrath of the past”.

Ladybug is for the moment stunned by the smooth talker, saved from embarrassment by Swim savior approaching them with Alya being carried potato sac style. Alya’s hair was wet and she was clenching her phone zipped in a bag likely after taking several photos of the battle. Ladybug sighed and resisted slapping her forehead; there was just no changing Alya’s need for a good lady blog post. Swim put her down and the butterfly flew out of her whistle, Ondine appeared slightly dazed but quickly walked over to Sam who had been sitting by the pool. When Ladybug looked back to Gorm the masked boy was gone, Paon was fighting back a blush looking to the window Gorm had exited from. 

Gorm landed outside and could barely contain his excitement as he ran into an ally to lose the costume. There he smacks into a girl in an orange hoodie, she manages to stay standing and flashes a smile his way. “I’m Lila of the PVTC would you mind answering a question?” she asks boldly batting her eyelashes in a flirty manner. 

“PVTC, uh sure?” Gorm scratches his head having no idea what channel or blog she was talking about. Annoyance flashed on Lila’s face but she quickly relaxed it before he could see. 

She cleared her throat “before you got your powers did you see Paon Bleu?”

Gorm’s eyes widened for a second “I did actually”.

“Yes” Lila cheered writing something on her phone “if I’m correct then it means Paon is creating his own team to fight the corrupt”. She leaves it at that and takes a photo of him “grazie uh…”

“Gorm, Gorm Orque” he says whipping his hood on and throwing the guitar to the ground. He steps on it and it lifts him off the ground, Lila gets another photo of him flashing a peace sign before flying off into another hiding spot.

Luka catches the kwami before he hit the ground “are you okay Irrin? You don’t look so good”. Irrin groans and waves him off; he was holding his tummy and curling his tail into his body.

“I’ll be okay, it just takes time until we can transform again” Irrin muttered not daring to look at his wielders concerned expression. He wasn’t lying about the time but this time something felt off, the pain was sharper than normal. Irrin hoped when they had to transform again nothing came of it.

Marinette lets out an excited squeal as she and Alya crash into each other on the tube ride. Alya points to Adrien below them and Marinette can’t stop her tube from sliding down and crashing into him. Luckily it’s all in good fun, from there they can watch people who dare try the siren and hear the screams as they zip though the loop. Kim crawls out of the end of the slide with his face so white he looked like a ghost; thankfully Max was there to help him over to the kiddie pool. Nathaniel smiled at them waiting in line for the mermaid madness slide, catching his reflection in a mirror the guard used to see down below. His hair looked good with the peacock pin in it; he might just leave it like that for the summer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gorm means blue in Scottish Gaelic, I recall seeing the Scottish flag in the background of the Luka introduction episode and thought it would be fun to use.  
> 


	6. Ace up my sleeve

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So the past few weeks have been eventful. I got a full time job as a landscaper which means I don't have a whole lot of time for writing but I'm still working at it.  
> Although I swear I'm having the worst sense of writers doubt with myself, fights don't feel nearly as fluid and fun as before and I'm struggling to make puns. Maybe it will get better, but what I think I might have to do is take a break from this one and start a new short story I thought up for Voltron legendary defender.

“Hello Father” Adrien says stepping into the interview room once more; his father looked up from the newspaper he was reading. There was a lovely photo of him being put in a police car with the tag lines “Gabriel line is butter-fried” on the front page.  
“Hello Adrien, we have much to talk about” Gabriel says folding the paper neatly on the table; he gestures to the seat in front of him. Adrien sits down and his father cleared his throat “let’s start with our finances shall we?”

Adrien would admit he only half understood what his father was talking about, but from what he could gather he was financially secure for at least a decade in the future. His father had planned his discovery of being a super villain down to the last detail, although the plan intended his mother would be with him by that point. When Adrien announced he was staying at the Gorilla’s place AKA Mr. G’s, his father looked displeased. 

“With my downfall the paparazzi will be tracking you down endlessly, you should be in a secure house with security. I will arrange for you to stay at Bourgeois hotel where you will stay unless you have a job” Gabriel stated writing a note down on the newspaper using a crayon. The prison did not allow its prisoners to use anything that could be used as a weapon.

“You want me to stay on lock down the entire summer, that’s not fair” Adrien blurts before he could help it. The look his father gave him almost made him back down like he always did, but something had changed. “I’m going to stay with Mr. G, he has locks on his doors and the place is up to safety standards, there’s no reason for me to leave. I shouldn’t have to hide because you made many mistakes; I am more than just your son”.

Gabriel’s eyebrow raised unimpressed “go on then, but don’t say I didn’t warn you” he hissed.

Adrien stood up and went for the door “oh and by the way I decided what to do with the old mansion. I’m going to turn it into a garden, like the one mom had in the basement”.  
Gabe glared at him “a garden?” his tone demanded Adrien change his words. 

Adrien didn’t flinch a ghost of a smile on his lips “I spoke with Nathalie and she said it was a great idea”. He closes the door without looking back at his father, alone in the room Gabe growls in frustration. 

Nino drums his fingers against his leg leaning against a tree. He turns at the sound of the steel door opening and moves to greet Adrien. Even with his father being exposed as a monster Adrien still would visit every opportunity. It was probably the most Adrien had spoken with him in years. Adrien stopped in front of Nino and gave a weak smile.

“You okay bro?” Nino asks knowing full well the difference between the actual and the modal smile.

“I’m okay…I’m okay” Adrien says breathing in sharply, emotions blew out of him suddenly. Nino offered his shoulder and Adrien accepted, Nino gently patted his back as Adrien sobbed. 

“Sorry…” Adrien manages to say once he’s cried himself dry; Nino’s shirt was pretty much soaked. 

“It’s alright Adrien, I think you needed that” Nino slapped Adrien’s shoulder and started to move them towards the car. “Now my mom’s making us a huge dinner tonight, there’s going to be garlic bread and mounds of pasta and-“Adrien was only half listening to Nino explain, a small smile found its way on his face regardless.

They stepped into Nino’s home to be greeted by bright orange walls and a rather messy living room. The gorilla manages to slip through the door without getting stuck, joining them to see Adrien off. 

“GUESS WHOSE TEAM WON!” A loud voice yells over the pounding of feet. 

Nino’s eyes widened in fear “wait no-“

“OURS SUCKER!” two taller boys charge across the room and tackle Nino, dragging Adrien to the floor. Both were dressed in bright red t-shirts, one wore squared glasses while the other wore a baseball cap. They laugh loudly until one spies Adrien under their arm “uh who this?”

“This is my friend Adrien-“Nino says getting to his feet and cracking his neck “-and that is his bodyguard”. He points and the two boys shrink at the large man’s less than impressed expression. 

“Boys if you’d please help me with the table we can eat” Nino’s mother waved them in one hand carrying a large plate of garlic bread. She spies Adrien brushing his shirt off and grins ear to ear, “ah you must be Adrien, come, come and have a seat”. Adrien doesn’t have much of a choice as she guides him to the massive table, she turns back to gorilla “you come too; I have more than enough for everyone”. The gorilla blinked stunned so the much smaller lady took his hand and brought him over, sitting him down next to Adrien. 

Adrien feels his mouth water as the mountains of food are placed on the table, he doesn’t miss the smirk Nino had on as he placed his hat on the chair. His mother sits at the head of the table and clears her throat “now Adrien I am Rebecca Lahiffe but you can just call me Becca-“she points around the table starting at Nino. “-You already know Nino my youngest-“she points to the tall one with glasses “-this is Antonio our soccer fanatic”. Antonio waves politely and shoves a forkful of pasta in his face. Becca pointed to the one with the baseball cap and noticed he had an earbud sticking out of one ear. “Sebastian Carlos Lahiffe, take those earbuds off at the table” Becca’s mom voice is so powerful even Gorilla reaches for non-existent earbuds. Becca bounces back to her cheerful smile so quickly it could give whiplash “anyway let’s dig in; I hope you both enjoy garlic”. The gorilla gives a small smile as he curls his pasta in a fork that was so small compared to his hand it was comical.

Nathaniel bit his pencil and flinched as he accidentally broke it in half, tomorrow he had to the interview and he was in no way ready for it. Duusu looked up from the TV where they were watching reruns of past interviews “don’t worry peachick we got this, here let’s practice some questions again”. 

Nath sighs as she picks up some flashcards “Duusu it’s not the same when it’s you giving me the questions I know you, you’re not some reporter hoping to humiliate me”. They were seated in the living room with a box of takeout sitting empty; his mom wasn’t coming home till later according to her text.

“Don’t be silly; what makes you think they want to humiliate you?” Duusu says pausing on her flash cards. Nath gestures to the TV where an interview with the two biggest super heroes’ Ladybug and Chat Noir was taking place. The host rather unprofessionally showed some photos taken of them in an attempt to expose their relationship. “Hmm I guess that would do it” Duusu blurts scratching the side of her head. 

"It’s hopeless Duusu, this is going to be so embarrassing” Nath moans hugging his knees. Whatever Duusu was about to say is cut off by the door opening; she zips under the pillows as Alix makes her way over to him. 

“Nath grab your bag we’re going for a smoothie” Alix snaps grabbing the remote and shutting off the TV. Nathaniel takes one look at her clenched jaw and knows there’s no refusing her demand, she was pissed. 

“Something happen?” Nath asks grabbing his blue bag and opening the pocket to let Duusu slip inside while Alix’s back was turned. Alix opens the fridge and pulls out an apple to munch on, waving them outside to begin the walk to the smoothie bar.

Alix takes a big bite “something happened all right, Chloe is going to make a fool out of my brother and he won’t believe me”. The juice runs down her chin as she takes another bite, she wipes it with her bare arm. “Okay so get this, you know how the museum was getting a new piece of history today. Something about Cleopatra and you know who shows up? Chloe”

“That only somewhat surprises me, wasn’t Queen Bee supposed to be there? You know Chloe loves her almost as much as Ladybug” Nath cut in as Alix finishes her apple and chucks it into a passing bin. 

“Yeah and she did, but she was talking to Jalil and gave him the phone number of her “friend” she growls retelling what she saw.

Alix’s hair was still damp from the park when the historic piece was brought in under a blanket, she could tell from afar just how excited her brother was to see it. A girl in a hoodie was standing beside him and he turned to her excited “she’s amazing isn’t she?” 

Alix chokes on air as the girl puts the hood down to reveal it was Chloe under it. Chloe looked horrified for a second but then clears her throat “uh yeah she was a great mathematician and scholar” she squeaks looking away clearly wanting to get away. 

Jalil’s eyes lit up “yes you have to be the first person not to mention her quote on quote beauty first thing”.

Chloe’s face scrunched “yea she was more about charm then looks, wasn’t she like super buff too”. Alix couldn’t believe her eyes as their conversation continued, Chloe knowing things about Egyptian queens? An evil smile blooms on the blondes face and Alix knows something is up. She starts to push through the crowd; another employee announced that Queen Bee was going to cut the ropes to reveal the historic piece. Chloe tensed and smiled awkwardly “here uh I know these things from my friend…Polly, you should text her and see if she answers. She’s like super into history stuff”.

Jalil looks at the number Chloe had wrote in his phone and calls out to her as she runs off “wait you’re going to miss the best part”. 

“Maybe she’s just being nice, Chloe’s not all bad” Nath mutters as they approach the smoothie place. 

“The only thing Chloe has done is not be a jerk at every opportunity; I doubt she’s able to do nice things without hissing like a vampire”. The two chuckle awkwardly walking inside and getting their smoothies from Rose, Alix got strawberry and Nath got raspberry. 

“Look Nath just because you have a crush on her doesn’t mean she’s a saint” Alix says throwing open the door to Nathaniel’s house.

“I’m not saying she’s a saint…and I don’t have a crush on her” Nath snaps moving his head in a way he normally did to hide his face in his hair. But with the new hairstyle his face is free to match his hair for all to see. Alix snorts and turns her attention to the living room, then promptly chokes on her smoothie. Nath follows her gaze and sees both his mother and another man with very blonde hair. Based off his sheepish smile and Caline blushing slightly while fixing her hair Nath had a rough idea what they were doing. A few bags of groceries sat harmlessly in the kitchen waiting to be put away.

“Hey Nathaniel…uh you remember Matvey” she gestures to the blonde man who gives a small wave. 

“Uh…yea?” he words it like a question, Alix continues sipping at the bottom of her smoothie even as the loud end of drink sounds fill the room. 

“Well I’m off” Alix announces turning around like a cartoon character and slamming the door behind her. 

“I’ll just be in my room” Nath says just as quickly, he grabs the flashcards still sitting on the coffee table then makes his way upstairs. Hopefully she didn’t see them and would ask about them later; most likely she didn’t because she was too busy….NO NO NON NEIN NOPE NOT GOING THERE.

“I’m happy for her, Matvey seems like such a nice guy” Duusu chirps clearly not understanding Nathaniel’s distress. Nath opens his mouth but a thump outside grabs his attention, he quietly walks over to the window and peeks out. Right outside his window is the lioness of pride Raion, she moved like a cat across the rooftop of the next house stopping right where she could see him. Nath freezes from her piercing gaze; she stands tall casting a shadow over him. A few seconds pass with this staring contest then Raion takes off without a word. 

Duusu slips out of her hiding spot once the coast was clear “come on Duusu let’s follow her” Nath says both following Ladybug’s orders and looking for an excuse to get out of the house. 

Raion slows to a walk as her ears twitch, what was that sound? Her question is answered by the sound of someone calling to her; she’s stunned as the two people rush towards her. The pink one throws her arms around her with a giggle “I was hoping we’d find you” she cries spinning the lioness around.

Raion remains frozen as Licorne puts her down and steps back “I ran into Gorm on the way here, he’s super sweet”. Gorm chuckles and gives a small wave to Raion. Licorne brushes her rainbow ponytail “and I am Licorne, I’m so looking forward to working with you”.

“I uh…right you’re the users of lust and wrath” Raion mutters scanning them both. Wrath was nothing like she imagined, he was like looking at a calm ocean at nighttime. Lust was more innocent than what she expected, neither looked like the knights Purrde had shown her visions of. But then again she looked nothing like the massive knight in golden armour that held the power of pride before. 

Gorm put his guitar behind his head “so we’re fighting evil, what’s our first move team leader?” 

Raion coughs awkwardly; right she was supposed to be the leader. “We um-“she snaps her fingers “-we begin our first patrol, like the miraculous hero’s”. Licorne cheers and claps her hands while Gorm plays a loud note on the guitar. Raion breaths a big sigh to hide the bubble of joy that tried to escape, the leader had to be cool calm and collected. 

“I can’t do this Chloe this is insane” Pollen cries once the two were in the safety of Chloe’s room. 

“Pollen you’re always going on about Egypt and stuff why not discuss it with someone who also won’t shut up about it” Chloe replies coolly checking her phone as it buzzed.  
“That’s him now, text him back while I take a shower” Chloe leaves her phone on the table in front of the kwami. 

“Chloe what if-“ Chloe slams the door cutting Pollen off, she looks back at the phone to see a number along with the message {hello, my name is Jalil, your friend Chloe gave me your number.} Pollen smiled at the use of periods and the formal way he wrote, she would forever cringe at the LOL Chloe would write. She sighed; they would just be texting so he would never know she wasn’t human…

{Hello Jalil, I heard about you from her. Is it true you work at the museum with the new Egyptian find?}

Pollen briefly considered putting a smiley face but decided against it, this relationship would be strictly professional. After rechecking the message for punctuation three times, and rewriting it at least four times she sent it. A few seconds pass and his reply pops up with a ding.

About a half hour later Chloe emerges from the bathroom putting the final touches on her face. Pollen was still typing away on the phone; Chloe peeked on the screen to see nearly thousands of messages had already been sent. “I see you two instantly clicked” Chloe purrs with a self-satisfied grin, Pollen made a sound of agreement eagerly watching the screen for the next message. Chloe was dressed in a black mini skirt and a tank that matched her purse “I’m going out for a while, see you later” she called putting spare phone in her bag and heading out the door. Pollen simply gives another sound of agreement not paying attention at all. 

Once the cool summer air greeted her Chloe let out a small cheer, she had the perfect scheme in action. Pollen would be so busy with her new friend Chloe could do what she wanted without having a stinger in her highney every minute. Her driver opened the door to the fancy car and she rather rudely gave him the directions to the party, almost by instinct her body tenses waiting for a stinger. But none came, Chloe’s eyes lit up in delight as she leans back in her seat. 

Paon yawned as he watched the knights from afar, other than a few stumbles from new powers the trio weren’t doing anything interesting. He’s about to call it a night when something catches his eye down below. He was in one of the more upscale parts of Paris and he could see a party taking place on the pool roof. He lay on his stomach and used the phone in one of his fans to zoom in on the chaos, spotting Chloe in the crowd laughing with a glass of expensive wine.

“Honey the 80s called, you can keep their garbage” Chloe says pointing to one girl’s neon pink dress. Without skipping a beat she struts over to the next group of victims and starts belittling everything from their looks to their wealth, Paon curses and slams the fan away as Chloe dumps her wine on an innocent’s girl’s dress claiming she mistook it for a rag. Paon turned away from the party as anger boiled in his gut. Had he really thought she had changed? She was still the no good, rich bratty bully she had always been. He held his head in his hands as his chest began to hurt, he was stupid, stupid! Without thinking he turns back and launches towards them. 

“And that loser still pines after me, like get off my back I’ve got much more impressive boys after me like…” Chloe jumps as a thunk is heard behind her. She turns and the fear is replaced by more excitement, “Paon what a surprise”. She puts an arm over his shoulders clearly not noticing his glare, “You guys remember when he was my sweet sixteen birthday present. Only the best for the princess of Paris” she cooed trying to jump into his arms but Paon stepped back. 

The other party goers awed over the appearance of one of miraculous hero’s, taking their phones out to take selfies with him in the background. Paon didn’t bother smiling as a boy wearing a tux with his hair slicked back approached him. Paon guess he was the host of the party. “To what do we owe the pleasure Paon, I’m sure it’s more than just my magnetic personality” he purrs waving a servant to bring the hero a drink. 

“Just making sure there’s no akuma attack tonight, would be a shame to wreck the party” Paon says with an underlying hiss the host doesn’t pick up on. Paon politely declines the drink and approaches Chloe now chewing out one of the staff for giving her sushi that was slightly warm. 

“Paon can you believe this clod thinks he can poison me with warm rice? Unacceptable, he should be fired and-“

“That’s enough Chloe” Paon snaps effectively getting Chloe to shut up. Chloe gulped meeting his eyes; she had never seen them like that before. Her bird was always so warm and approachable; children and animals flocked to him during daytime patrols. Now he clenched the fans in his hands so tightly his knuckles trembled, his eyes cold as stone. “I thought you were better than this” he hissed not caring that all conversations around them had stopped. 

Chloe blinked “better than what? I’m perfect” she regrets her words as his back feathers slap the ground loudly. 

“Perfect? Absolute bull crap” he snaps backing her up against the glass that prevented people from falling down below. “All you are, is a petty bratty bully with no heart under all that crap you call a personality. I don’t know how I once thought you were even capable of being a decent human being” Chloe felt her eyes water as Paon took a step back. “I suppose it’s my mistake for thinking you had changed” he gives one final jab then he opens his fans and launches away. Chloe is stunned as everyone around her moves their phones to catch Paon as he flew away. His back feathers allowed him to glide like a kite before vanishing behind a building. 

“That was fun guys; I can’t wait for the rest of the team to arrive” Licorne chirps as the three lands on top of the school, their meeting place for now. Gorm holds up his fist and Licorne eagerly bumps it with her own, “come on Raion join in”. Raion blinks confused but copies her teammate’s actions “pound it” Licorne and Gorm cry at the same time. 

The three part ways with Licorne being last to make it home, she slides into her room and uses a pink pillow to muffle her squeals of delight. Being a super hero was amazing, sure there wasn’t a battle tonight but she could focus on knowing her team in the meantime. Raion was a little unsure and clearly wanted to be the best leader ever. She wanted to make them some cookies for tomorrow, shoot she should have asked what kinds of sweets they liked. 

Licorne is about to drop the costume when Paon Bleu runs by her window, she blinked as a tug pulled at her. She only saw him for a second but he was clearly upset, her head starts to spin. 

“Miyuu hooves dull” she mutters but to her surprise her costume doesn’t fall “Miyuu hooves dull” she repeats louder. Her head was starting to pound “Miyuu hooves dull” she cries forcing her breaths to come out calm despite panic starting to crawl in. “Miyuu?” she mutters falling to her knees looking at her reflection in the mirror.

“Young love is so sweet but the heart break is even sweeter” Licorne gasps as her reflection speaks to her. But the Licorne looking back at her had several differences in costume, her eyes were crimson and she had a large broken heart on her chest. “And lust controls young love doesn’t it? We should help that poor bird” the real Licorne eyes dull unable to look away from the fake. 

Slowly she stands up with the reflection “we will help everyone find their true love” they both say into the dark room. Licorne walks to the mirror and presses her hand on its surface, the copy blurs until both Licorne’s look exactly the same. Licorne plucks off her horn and it flips out into a dark red crossbow, with a smirk she fires a black arrow that hits an apple across the room and rots it to goo. 

 

“Has anyone seen Rose? She was supposed to bring the refreshments” Nino asks wiping his brow. The group of kids were all part of the volunteers Adrien had gathered to start the project of turning the Agreste mansion remains into a garden. City workers had already removed the building debris but there was still a lot of work to be done, lots of dirty hot work. Alya shrugged wiping the dirt off her knees, her glasses sliding off her nose from the heat of the day. They were given the task to put out all the dirt for the plants coming in later today.  
“Luckily I always come prepared” Marinette chirps opening a cooler and pulling out bottles of water from the ice. 

Kim and Ivan were working with an adult to get a few wooden gazebos up. Juleka, Mylene, and Max were given the same task as Nino and Alya. But they also worked on setting up sections for each part of the garden and then there was Adrien. Bless him he tried to help but the poor rich boy had no idea what he was doing, he was hitting a nail for a raised garden bed and managed to slam the hammer straight though the wood. 

“Marinette, pass some over here” Alix cries waving with her much too large garden gloves. Marinette grabs for her cooler only to discover it was empty.

“I have more behind the truck, one second” Marinette calls not looking where she was going. She trips over a bag of dirt, tumbles over several people working and steps on the edge of a rake.

The handle comes shooting for her face but a hand cuts in to block its path “careful Marinette you don’t want to get hurt” Adrien says flashing her a wonderful smile.  
Marinette’s face burns “uh yes right, sorry just being me-sy” she was going to say “clumsy” but changed it to “me” last second resulting in the blunder. Adrien chuckles amused as she stumbles over herself then zips behind the van where all the garden equipment was stored.

“Oh I’m a fool” Marinette moans grabbing the water bottles to put in the cooler.

“A love sick fool” a voice says behind her, Marinette turns and gasps at Licorne. “Don’t worry dear I’ll help you with that” she purrs firing a bolt before Marinette could move. 

Alix sits by Nathaniel with a cheeky look on her face; he paused on his project of a birdhouse to look at her. “Come to brag about being right?” he asks with a few nails sticking out of his mouth.

“Hey I totally called it, did you see that post online? Paon totally called her out on her crap” she squeaked in excitement. Normally Nath was happy to hear a fan gush about his secret identity, but not today. Alix raises a brow “Chloe crap in your breakfast this morning?” 

Nath shakes his head “no I’m just-“he pauses trying to think of the word “-really warm…it’s too hot today”. He takes a deep interest in the birdhouse not daring to look Alix in the eye, Alix chuckles and removes her purple backpack from her shoulders.

“Well here’s something that might cheer you up” she says digging into the bag and thrusting an object wrapped in newspaper in his face before he could say anything. “Happy birthday” Nathaniel raises a brow but takes the present and opens it. Alix has the biggest cheeky smile on her face her pigtails pretty much turned into devils horns.

Nathaniel holds up a box containing a pool floaty shaped like a tomato “where do you even find these things?” is all he can say.

“A shop down the street has all kinds of cool stuff, I even got these cards there” Alix holds up a pack of cards in a purple box. She pulls out a few to show him, each had a purple butterfly on the back with a miraculous hero in place of a king, queen or so forth. The king of hearts was of Chat Noir dressed in black king robes with the usual spark in his eyes. The jack of spades was of Rena Rouge dressed like a thief in a medieval fantasy novel, complete with her flute pressed lightly against her lips. Then there was the Queen of clubs, where Queen Bee was drawn with a pink rose in her hand. Her usual outfit replaced with the most gorgeous of ball gowns.  
Alix caught on to how Nathaniel lingered on the photo of Queen Bee, a blonde like Chloe. “You know these cards have a point”.

“What do you mean?”

“Well“ Alix shuffles though the cards and holds up the other queen cards “there’s always more than one queen in a deck, so you found out Chloe is still the Alice in wonderland Queen of hearts. There are still plenty of cards in the deck” she holds up the decks queen of diamonds. This was Ladybug in a blue version of her costume with a crown. “Remember how much of a crush you had on Ladybug after you were akumantized?” she snorts and Nath sighs but he can’t hold back a chuckle. 

Nathaniel sighs staring at a bee that was busying itself on a flower “I really thought she had changed, but she’s still the same bully”. 

Alix shrugs “not your fault, she had fooled a few people. Not everyone has my sense” she stretches and leans back on her seat. “What made you think she changed so much anyway? She asks as soon as Nath raised the hammer to begin on the birdhouse again.

He scratches his chin “I think it had to be-“ 

“ADRIEN” Marinette yells suddenly making them both jump. The pigtailed girl marches up to Adrien who had turned pink from all the stares. 

“Uh is something wrong Marin-“he cuts off as Marinette grabs his face and pulls it in for a kiss. The reaction is instant; Nathaniel’s jaw hit the ground. Alya started screaming and scrambled for her phone to take pictures, Nino had frozen in place. Adrien looks shocked at first, but then a haze falls over his eyes and he kisses her back. 

Marinette ends the kiss and looks at Adrien with a love sick look, anyone not stunned starts clapping for them. That is until they get a good look at the pink iris’s Marinette had, Adrien’s had turned that colour as well. 

“It’s the Zombizou sickness RUN” Max screams bolting away, the others quickly follow behind him. A shadow falls over him and Licorne slams in front of Max knocking him to the ground. 

“Not quite, they’ll only kiss the ones they love” she coos taking aim with a red bolt. She hits Ivan directly; the bolt vanishes into his chest like the hate arrows from the dark cupid attack. More people get hit by her bolts as they try to run, Nino sacrifices himself so Alya could get away. Alix gets hit trying to hide behind a mound of dirt. Nathaniel Max and Mylene run into an ally, Nath opens a dumpster for them to crawl inside. 

“Get in Nath, there’s room” Mylene hisses waving him inside.

“There you are” Adrien calls from the front of the ally; Nath quickly shuts the dumpster hoping they would be hidden. Adrien has an evil smirk as he approaches “thinking you can hide?” 

“Adrien don’t do this” Nathaniel hisses backing up; he had to lead him away from them. His back bumped the wall and out of the corner of his eye he saw a metal trash can. 

“No hard feelings Nath” Adrien purrs lunging for him. Nath reacts and grabs the trash can lid, a satisfying sound of face meeting metal doesn’t slow Nathaniel down as he runs away. Adrien curses holding a sure to be black eye and follows after him.

Alix clenches her chest waiting for the spell to take effect, after a few seconds of nothing happening she opens her phone to check her eyes in the camera. They were normal, she was sure she got hit. Alix closed her phone with a sigh and reached for her cards that had spilled all over the ground. She held up one with an A on it and her eyes widened “it’s because I’m-“

“Ace, that’s it” Chrysalid cries from her hiding place of the day, this being the inside of the delivery truck. Her butterflies were enjoying the flowers as she calls one to use her power on. The now lavender butterfly takes off through the open window leaving Chrysalid to pick at her costume while she waited for the butterfly to land. Man this took forever… 

Licorne laughs as her minions present her with another victim, she raises the weapon to fire. 

“KING OF HEARTS” a voice shouts behind her, Licorne yelps as she’s blinded by a bright red cape. She struggles to get it off and hears her minions cry out in alarm. When she gets it off there’s three things of notice, the first being her three minions were tied to a telephone pole with some rope. The second was a girl chilling beside them wearing a bright purple outfit. Licorne doesn’t linger on her since the third thing was the biggest threat; it was Raion glaring her down. 

“What has gotten into you Knight?” Raion snaps pulling her sword out and pointing it at Licorne. For a second Licorne’s eyes change back into their baby blues. Her face flashes with fear then she blinks and the crimson is back. 

“Mother needs us, we have to save her” Licorne cries raising her weapon boldly at the lioness. 

“You can’t win against both of us” Raion hisses charging to strike. The purple girl charges as well putting a hand on her chest to pull out a new card. Suddenly their feet are pulled out from under them; the sting throws them into a dumpster. Licorne turns to her apparent savior and she smiles widely, oh this was perfect. 

Nath rushes into the now empty garden area, Duusu peeks out from his shirt pocket and winks. He finds a blue tarp and ducks under it making it one of the strangest places he had ever transformed. Paon shoots out the other end and launches to a street lamp. 

Paon turns and jumps away before Chat Noir can pin him down. “Two can play at that game” he says baring his teeth to hiss. 

Paon blows a raspberry in return and launches to the rooftops, Chat right on his heels. Down below he can see more of Licorne’s minions chasing after people, he almost would have preferred zombies. Zombie Chat was slow compared to this. Speaking of Chat’s claws grab hold of his feathers and cause them both to fall down into an outdoor jewellery shop. “Nice gems around here, but I’ll take this one” Chat purrs reaching for the miraculous in Paon’s hair. 

“Come on Chat you should be able to spot my illusions by now” Rena calls stopping Chat in his tracks. Rena waves with another Paon and both turn tail and leap to the rooftops. Chat growls and chases after them, once he’s out of view Rena appears from behind a car and grabs Paon’s hand “that won’t trick him for long”. The two take off in the other direction while Rena rings up the other hero’s, finally Ladybug picks up. “Ladybug we got a serious situation here” Rena cries as they take shelter inside a music shop.

“I know” Ladybug says with her head bowed and her eyes closed. “You haven’t seen the light yet” Ladybug opens her eyes to reveal they were pink like Chat’s. Rena and Paon yelp in horror, Licorne puts her arm around Ladybug and leans into frame.

“I know right, even I’m surprised” Licorne purrs taking the yo-yo away so it was just her in frame. “So think you can stop me? Good luck, oh and Paon” she pauses to smile and holds up a dark red bolt. “This beauty has your name on it” Licorne purrs then blows a kiss. The camera moves away from her revealing they were right outside the Bourgeois hotel. Rena growls as Licorne shuts the phone off leaving her with a reflection of them on the screen. 

“Ladybug was right, the knights of sin are evil” Rena mutters daring to call the other team members to see their situation.

Something about this seemed off to Paon, call it a “bird sense” but it wouldn’t leave him alone. Her costume had slightly changed from the last time, could she be corrupted like he was?

“You hear me birdy?” Rena asks poking Paon on the side of the head, “we need to get Ladybug’s yo-yo it might be the only way to purify Licorne’s miraculous”. Rena’s flute phone goes to Bee’s voicemail and she shuts it off without leaving a message, why couldn’t she just text with these stupid things?  
Rena turns the screen slightly and sees something green jumping towards them; she turns to greet Carapace only for him to tackle her. Paon moves to help her but a metal staff smacks him in the face, Chat grins making the Baton go back to normal size.

“I’ve been looking for you” Carapace hissed tightening his grip on her hands, Rena is thankful her mask covers most of her face.

“Don’t you have a girlfriend?” Rena squeaks trying to squirm away, Carapace leans in closer until they were an inch apart. 

“Couldn’t find her, but I found you” he practically growls. Rena makes a squeaky sound and her tail flutters excitedly in betrayal. 

Paon blocks Chat’s next strike with his hands and forces Chat to step back. “Poor Paon with a broken heart” Chat teases sidestepping Paon’s kick. He slips the baton in between  
Paon’s legs and twists it to send Paon to the ground. 

“Really Shelly I care for you as a friend, so much so that I can’t let you do this” Rena cries grabbing his head with her thighs and flipping them so she was on top. She frees her wrists and gets to her feet pointing her flute at him. Her ponytail swishes over her shoulder to watch Paon throw a closed fan at Chat’s head; with a battle cry she swings at Chat’s back. Carapace charges at Paon with the shield and Paon spins to trip him. The turtle rolls into a stereo filling the room with a nice sound track. 

Both Chat and Carapace stand up and charge Rena “Paon I can hold them, get to Ladybug and stop Licorne” Rena orders dropping down and lifting her legs into the air. Then like some kind of break dance move she spins her legs like a top and hits her opponents into some stands for CD’s. Paon had to wonder if she even knew that would work or if she was just having fun. He puts that to memory to draw later and heads towards where Licorne was. 

Rena stands up and fixes her ponytail; the boys dust themselves off and ready to charge. “Not how I imagined my first dance battle but I’ll take it” Rena taunts doing a small shimmy with the music.

Chat swings for her head and Rena dodges by doing a limbo, Carapace tries to tackle her but she grabs his arms first and swings him across the room. She can’t help but laugh as Carapace’s hoodie gets stuck in a DJ stand, “are you feeling the music Shelly?

“Are you?” Rena can’t dodge Chat’s foot in time, she goes flying and crashes into the DJ stand. Chat smirks as the front door opens revealing Ladybug “my lady care to help us out?”

Ladybug doesn’t respond and throws her arms around Chat. Rena raised a brow as she gets to her feet; something was up with her costume. It was more pink then red, before Chat can react Ladybug moves him in for a kiss. 

And then she explodes.

When the dust clears Chat is struggling to free his body from pink ropes. Rena can’t voice her confusion before Carapace frees himself from the stand and goes to grab his shield. All of a sudden a purple blur speeds by him knocking him to the ground, it strikes again and again. The blur grabs the wires for the sound equipment and ties Carapace’s wrists and legs together. The blur then stops in front of Rena revealing her outfit. Lavender coloured bike racing pants were connected to dark purple roller skates with butterfly wings decorating the heel. She had an ace symbol found on cards on her chest and a dark purple motorcycle helmet that didn’t cover her huge smile. 

“You must be Chrysalid’s new champion…” Rena says at last, the girl eagerly nods.

“I sure am, names Ace of Cards. Did you see me there I was like zoom, zoom bang” she cries throwing a few punches at the air. The butterfly mask appears over her face for a moment “yeah, yeah I’m focused” she mutters waving the voice only she could hear off. 

Rena chuckles as the girl reminded her of herself back when she first started “let’s see if we can catch up with Paon” she orders blowing kiss to Carapace as they walk out the door. Ace had a less then polite gesture to give them as she leaves, earning some frustrated hisses from the trapped boys. 

Pollen crossed her nubs watching Chloe’s form mope under the blankets. She was beyond disappointed with what she had done last night and had so felt that she got what she deserved. Chloe sat up and muttered something so faintly Pollen had to ask her to speak up for the first time.

“It wasn’t even worth it” Chloe repeats sticking her lip out in a pout. “I didn’t get any satisfaction of seeing those girls crushed under my feet…I felt…” her lip trembles and Pollen sighs prepping herself.

“What did you expect from stinging your own hive?” Pollen asks sitting on Chloe’s knees hidden under her ladybug themed blanket. 

“Being nice is so hard” Chloe whines wiping her tears before they could fall and mess up her makeup. 

“I’m not saying it isn’t, but a happy hive produces more honey then a grumpy one” Pollen says with a smile. A buzz comes from Chloe’s phone and she frowns at the list of names  
“we have a few people to apologize to, we’ll start with the girls” Pollen grabs Chloe’s purse and sits herself inside. 

Chloe pouts but whatever she was going to say is interrupted by a knock on the door. Then rather rudely Licorne kicks it down, “hello love I heard your heart break from afar” she holds up the crossbow with a black bolt ready to fire. 

Glass shatters behind Chloe and she yelps as a pair of strong arms grab her, Paon spared her a rather cold glance then makes eye contact with Licorne. The unicorn’s eyes grew in excitement, but it’s quickly replaced with frustration as two more figures run into the room. She turns her head to see the other two knights of sin. Raion glared at Licorne “stand down knight of lust”. 

“Mother needs us, we have to free her” Licorne screams shooting a large black bolt into the room, it explodes into thousands of bolts that shot everywhere. Paon turns and his  
back feathers rise to try and shield them, Raion swings to attack them and Gorm yelps as they plunge into his arm. 

“Raion we need to get out of here” Paon orders and Raion runs after him out the broken window. Gorm’s eyes turn pink like the rest and he plays a hard note on the guitar, the loud note blows Paon and Raion down to a rough landing on a nearby building.

“You won’t get away” Licorne cries landing on the roof, her strongest minions jumping beside her, Ladybug and Gorm. Paon growls softly putting Chloe down behind him, his back feathers still up to protect her. Chloe crawls away and hides behind a giant air conditioner, her hands go to where her purse would be. she curses softly realizing it was still on her bed, Pollen still inside.

Licorne fires another bolt at Paon’s head but he moves to dodge it, he just had to get close enough to grab her anklet. Raion fought Gorm who was using his guitar like a sword, “you really think you can be team leader?” he hisses making her growl. She throws him back and hits him with the sword hard, tripping him to the ground and looming over him pointing the weapon at his throat.

“I am the leader of the knights, and you will respect that” she swings it down and Gorm blocks with his guitar. 

Ladybug throws her yo-yo at Paon but it gets cut off by a card smacking into it, she turns her head in time for a blur to send her flying. It stops and Ace grins “sorry Ladybug but that was awesome” she squeals. 

Paon pauses for a moment while in the middle of sparing with Licorne to stare at the newcomer. “Alix?” he blurts before he could think it though, Licorne uses the distraction to plunge a bolt into his chest. 

“Paon no” Rena cries flying down to them, Paon stumbles back as the bolt disappears into his chest, his eyes shut tightly. Licorne puts her hands on her hips with a confident grin, Paon reopens his eyes.

They were blue, blue as the ocean on a sunny day. “What” Licorne cries while Paon pats the place the bolt had hit and looks at his hands. The fight temporary stops as everyone looks at him with confusion, all except Ace who had lit up in delight.

Paon jumps as Ace bolts beside him and throws an arm around his shoulders “wow you’re ace too, that’s so awesome”. Paon just looks more confused as she pulls out a card from her chest with a glowing light. “I have the perfect card for this” she adds waving it proudly.

Ace activates her card “ace of diamonds” she cries blinding everyone with a blue light. A second Paon appears wielding the bow and arrow, firing at Gorm and Ladybug. Ladybug leaps out of the way only to run into Rena, she kicks her back down and into Gorm. 

Licorne shoots twice at Raion forcing the lioness to back flip to avoid getting shot. Licorne growls and spots Chloe trying to sneak towards the stairway entrance. Paon grabs her right as she was about to shoot with such speed they both fall off the building. 

Ace grabs the yo-yo and uses the string to tie them together, “no hard feelings right ladybug?” Ladybug just glares unable to shake free. “Hey where’s Paon?” she asks after a pause.

Inside a smoothie shop the manager was cleaning the last few glasses of the day; she turns off the sink and turns to leave. Then Paon and Licorne fall through the ceiling, the tiny women impressively books it out of there. 

“If I can’t make you love then I’ll rot you away” Licorne cries aiming with a dark purple bolt, Paon grabs the crossbow and forces it to fire at the sink instead. 

“Uh…think I’ll pass” is all Paon can think to say watching the sink decompose like it was hit with a cataclysm. She growls and kicks him into the pipes spilling water all over the floor. Paon groans and his hands brush a feather attached to his belt. Licorne’s eyes flash back to blue for a second, she slaps her head and growls loudly. Possession, Paon pulls off the feather and it turns into an arrow. Licorne’s eyes grow wide at the glowing arrow in Paon’s hands; he smirks and puts it in the bow. 

“Soul Strike” he cries firing it low and hitting the anklet. Licorne screams as she’s surrounded by a bright blue light. 

When Paon opens his eyes he’s floating in a bubble, exactly like when he cured a corrupt. He flaps his fans to move though the darkness until he finds what he’s looking for, a girl holding a kwami close to her chest looking like she was asleep. Paon gets close and a hissing makes him jump, a shadowy figure jumps in front of him. “We have to save her, we don’t have a choice” a young girls voice comes from the shadow. Her features come into focus, like Licorne she was dressed in a unicorn themed outfit. But the suit was crimson and the horn sharp as a knife. Paon readies another arrow and shoot’s Licorne’s bubble, the demon shrieks in pain as light fills the room.

Paon blinks finding he was back in the smoothie shop, “Rose?” he goes to pick the unconscious girl up and spies the kwami resting on her chest. The kwami looked at him with big round eyes and started to cough, Paon makes a sound of disgust as it spits out a bug. A mosquito nearly the size of a cherry, Paon uses a nearby plastic bag to grab it. He had a feeling Ladybug should take a look at it. 

He puts Rose down outside and fires his last arrow into the sky, it explodes into millions of tiny feathers that rain over the city.

 

“Did you see me Nathaniel I was the coolest champion yet” Alix cries from Nathaniel’s phone, he pauses on his laptop to chuckle at her.

“Yeah the Lady Blog is blowing up about it” he says slamming the laptop closed. Duusu chuckled from her nest hidden in the closet, she liked this girl. 

“Okay see you tomorrow, oh and don’t forget to turn to Paon Bleu’s interview at seven. Did I tell you he was ace?”

“About eight times now” Nath says and she sheepishly laughs about it. Nath says goodbye and throws the phone onto the bed. “So turns out I am a biromantic asexual” he announces turning to Duusu, the kwami flies over with a huge smile.

“It’s so wonderful how you have the information to learn these things about yourself” she coos doing a spin in the air. “Now about the interview I thought of few little things you could do to avoid stage fright” she pulls out a list which trails to the floor.


	7. Let off some steam

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How do other adults do it? I got my first full time job as a landscaper and by the time I've done for the day I'm too tired to write most of the time. I know some writers on here that have parenting on top of everything else and I have no idea how they do it.  
> I will continue to work on this but updates will be slow, hope you guys can be patient with me.

Chapter 7 

“As our main story tonight Ladybug has told reporters that the latest attack was caused by a corrupted knight of sin, Lust” the news women droned next to a poor quality photo of Licorne’s corrupted form. Rose watched with her family and grabbed a pillow to hug against her chest. The picture changed to Ladybug and a reporter, “although the Paris Lady couldn’t tell us for sure what’s causing this evil, we know for certain the giant mosquitoes are part of it”. The picture changed to a close up of the bagged mosquito Ladybug had in her hands. 

Rose sighed and sat up “mom I’m going to go to bed, my stomach hurts”.

Her mother watched her walk to the stairs “I told you all that icing would give you a tummy ache, you don’t work till the afternoon tomorrow so sleep in okay?”  
Rose gave a small “okay” and disappeared into her room while the TV showed clips from other interviews including one of two lifeguards agreeing a giant mosquito was seen moments before the attack began. 

“The day was saved by the mysterious Paon Bleu as seen in this clip here; tune in tomorrow to catch the exclusive bird interview where we learn just what makes this bird tick”.

Rose entered her bedroom and threw a blanket over her mirror not wanting to see it after what happened. From her pocket she produces a bottle of vanilla buttercream and opens the nightstand, among the makeup and a book was Miyuu resting in a tissue box. The kwami opened its eyes and Rose’s heart crumbled as she tried to hold back tears. “I understand if you want to get rid of me, just say so and I’ll disappear” Miyuu whimpered tightly gripping a tissue in her hooves. 

Rose picked Miyuu up and used her thumb to wipe away the tears “Miyuu I’m shook from what happened but I won’t abandon you, you don’t deserve that”. She sat on her bed and handed Miyuu the bottle which the kwami gently takes. Rose can’t help but think of a baby as she suckles the icing, she still couldn’t believe a god like creature needed icing to fuel itself. Or that this god creature was this precious. Miyuu was terrified of her own shadow; she could never live with herself if she gave her up. 

Miyuu finished and smiled softly “thank you Rose”.

“You’re welcome Miyuu” she pauses as a frown paints her lips. “After everything that happened, I fully expected you to be taken by Paon…I wonder why he left you”.

“I’m grateful that he did, who knows what would have happened if Ladybug found me” 

Rose didn’t comment and instead turned off the light, in the moonlight she put Miyuu into her tissue box bed. She was sure the fear the kwami had for Ladybug was misguided, but no amount of explaining Ladybug’s kindness was enough to convince Miyuu. 

 

“The cost of mosquito repellent is going to skyrocket” Chat announces poking the dead insect in the baggie. The miraculous group was seated around their usual meeting spot, but now with couches. Donated by thankful fans who really just needed an excuse to get rid of their old furniture. It was dirty and worn but no one had to sit on it if they didn’t want to. Paon was sitting on the headrest to allow his back feathers to trail down the couch while Carapace sat cross legged on the arm. 

“Yes it most certainly will” Ladybug agrees then sighs, an indication she had something big to say. Her eyes linger over her teammates, how Bee’s wings drooped lower than usual. Rena fidgeted with her tail and Paon glanced at her nervously. Even her kitty Chat looked tenser with his claws digging into his sleeves when he thought Ladybug wasn’t looking. 

“Too bad this bad guy isn’t as dramatic as Hawk moth, remember when he used a bunch of butterflies to make his face in the sky?” her attempt to defuse tension earns her a few forced laughs. 

Ladybug takes the bag and holds out the mutated bug “we may not know who’s causing this but we will soon”. She pockets the bug and reaches an arm into the shadows “I’d like to end this meetup on a positive note, everyone I’d like to officially introduce Chrysalid”.

Chrysalid’s hand takes Ladybug’s and she steps out of the shadows with a shy smile on her face. “Hi everyone” she squeaks with an adorable wave. Chat moves to kiss her hand in his usual gentleman fashion while Carapace just tips an imaginary hat. 

“Finally-“Bee says pausing to throw her arms around Ladybug and Chrysalid. Her high heels tap loudly on the concrete roof, “-we can be the bug trio now” she tries to force excitement but it sounds hollow. She has a smile that doesn’t reach her eyes as she turns to Chrysalid “but just so you know Ladybug is my bug buddy”. 

Ladybug catches her quick glance to Paon and the almost invisible tremble of her lips. Had something happened between them? Ladybug puts her arm around Bee’s waist and offers her a friendly smile. Bee smiles and she brings both girls closer for a side hug. 

Chrysalid holds her hand out for a white butterfly to land on “my powers were misused with Hawk moth, and I want you all to know I will never use them to manipulate people”. 

“You look like a sweet girl, I betcha you got names for all your little butterflies” Rena chimes in body language back to her usual confidence. 

Chrysalid giggles “you’d be right, this guy is death stroke” she points to the one in her hand which flaps proudly. While Chat tells the story of them fighting Glitch to Rena Ladybug takes Paon’s shoulder and leads him away from the group. 

“Paon…about Licorne-“

“I’m sorry I just couldn’t” Paon cuts her off with his voice slightly shaking. Ladybug’s heart sunk seeing the bird crossing his arms like he was hugging himself. “I know I should have given the miraculous to you so it could be purified properly, I just saw her kwami and it reminded me of Duusu and she’d be devastated if I took her away and-“

“Breath Paon” Ladybug grabs both of his shoulders to stop his rambling; his face flushed embarrassed and out of air. “I’m not mad at you for leaving her kwami, I wouldn’t ask you to do that anyway” she dropped her hands. “What I was going to say is I’d like you to keep an eye on the knights of sin. All of them so far seem drawn to you and you know one of their identities” she ordered voice more stern then her eyes. 

“I can do that” Paon almost whispered thinking back to Rose, hopefully she was alright. 

“Good” Ladybug put her hands on her hips proudly. Either Tikki or her own mind flashed to Shu’s training her on the different knights “I know I seem convinced that the knights of sin are evil but I trust your judgment Paon” he smiled shyly at that and they headed back to the group. 

For over an hour the hero’s just chatted with one another, discussing battle strategy’s and team moves. Rena caught Bee’s hand and the two flew up to a ledge above out of earshot of the others, Bee bit her lip and turned away. “I’m fine Rena. It’s just been a long day”

Rena opened her free arm to offer a hug; Bee shook her head knowing full well if she got a hug she was going to cry. Rena was like a big sister to all the miraculous users, she was so approachable and loving it was unfair. Rena smirked and pulled something out of her ponytail, “I think I know just the thing to cheer you up”. Bee raises a brow at the pen like object, half wondering what else Rena had hiding in that poofy hair of hers. 

“So what kinds of things can you do with that cane?” Chat asked poking the stick in Chrysalid’s boot. 

Chrysalid pulls it out and brings it to full size; to keep it from looking like Hawk moth even the cane had a different design. The long part was stained silver with a twisty bark like look to it; the top part with the glass orb was surrounded by metal flower petals. “Well other than the sword hidden inside it can help me focus on people’s emotions to find a worthy champion” she pauses admiring the orb. 

Paon wasn’t really paying attention, the stress of the incoming interview making him too tired. Something zips past his vision, his head starts to comically follow it as it lands on his boot then across the ground. Unknown to him was Chat doing the same thing. Chat reacts first and pounces on it “I got it” he cries opening his hands to see the dot was gone, his face falls. Paon caught it in his sights and stamped down on it, only for it to mock him by swinging in front of his feet each time. 

The girls above break into laughter, Paon and Chat stop chasing the dot realizing Rena was holding a laser pointer. “Come on you almost had it” Rena taunts in between gasps of laughter, Paon feels his face burn as the others start to laugh. 

Chat smiles and wipes the dirt off his gloves “okay you got us” he chirps. Paon pouts slightly but one look from Chat and he relaxes with a sigh. It was just a joke, no need to get the feathers ruffled. 

When Paon lands in his room he’s careful to be quiet so he didn’t startle his mom. He drops the costume and collapses on the bed “is it wrong to wish for a TV destroying akuma for tomorrow?” he asks watching Duusu grab her peanut butter and raspberry jam sandwich. She had taken a liking to a little change up in her sandwich every so often. 

“Not at all, but it is wrong to be mean and not apologize” she replied sitting on the drawing table opposite him. 

“Why should I? Chloe was a total jerk and I told her off” Nathaniel whined sitting up and crossing his arms. 

“You’re the super hero peachick, you have to be the bigger person” Duusu said ignoring full well she knew about Chloe’s double life. 

Nathaniel looked down and his leg bounced restlessly “fine-” he says at last “-you up for a late night visit?”

Duusu wiped the crumbs off her mouth “always”.

“Pollen, why can’t I make this look good” Chloe asked staring at herself in the mirror. She was in the middle of testing out new makeup styles. She wore yellow eye shadow with black eye liner in the Egyptian style. 

“Because you’re not Egyptian honey” Pollen answered running a file over her nub. Chloe rolls her eyes and reaches for the wipes. 

Suddenly there’s a thunk coming from outside the bathroom, “hey Chloe are you here?” a shy male voice makes Chloe pause. She takes the eyeliner to finish the other eye and practices a few pouty faces in the mirror. Something about this look screamed “do not mess with me”.  
Paon flinches when Chloe storms out of the bathroom, eyes trained on him. For a second he forgot what he was here for. Instead of her usual blue eye shadow Chloe wore a striking yellow. She also had head turning eyeliner and her hair was down. Her golden locks were slightly wavy at the front, he had no idea her hair was naturally curly. 

“What do you want bird brain?” Chloe snaps bringing Paon back to reality. 

Irritation bit at the back of his head, “I came to apologize for what I said the other day. It was uncalled for and unprofessional”. He spoke like one would to a co-worker they couldn’t stand. 

Chloe leaned back as if tasting the apology “well I guess you’re forgiven, don’t expect to be invited to my next birthday however”.

“Wasn’t planning on going” Paon says just as coldly. He turns to leave muttering something about “dumb blondes”. Chloe watches him only for a nub to smack the backside of her head; silently she shakes a fist at Pollen who points at Paon with equal attitude. 

“Paon, wait” Chloe sighs and grabs Paon’s hand. Paon turns his head to greet her eyes, missing Pollen shooting into her hiding spot. Chloe drops his hand and grabs her left arm “you…you were right about what you said…about me”. She pauses looking to the ground “the things I said to those girls, was cruel and uncalled for, I was acting like a bully and there’s no excuse for that”. “But…” she bites her lip meeting his eyes again, “I want to be better…so I’ve taken up some things to use instead of taking it out on people”. 

Pollen beamed watching them; did that mean Chloe was taking her advice? If she could reach her back to pat it she would, she was such an awesome royal adviser. 

“I’m uh glad to hear that” Paon says a little more warmly. Chloe lets out a sigh that sounded shy…and cute. 

A whomp behind him makes Paon jump; his back feathers had gained a mind of their own and sprang out. His face flushes as he struggles to put them back down. Chloe can’t help but laugh, he hadn’t lost control of those in a while. 

Her eyes grew wide, now that she thought about it he hadn’t done that since her first night as Queen Bee. 

“I should get going” Paon squeaks making his way to the balcony. “Have a good night Chloe” he throws out then he disappears into the night.

 

“So the first sin attacked and you were under its control” Shu spoke in a monotone as she circled Marinette. Marinette gulped sitting on the backs of her legs, Shu had placed them what looked like her old temple. For a dream it was well detailed, Marinette could smell the smoking herbs in the corner as well as feel a cold breeze from outside on her neck. Tikki was in another one of her human forms, this time she chose her wielder illustrated in the spell book. The Chinese woman looked right at home sitting on one of the pillow chairs eyes closed for the moment. Shu stopped in front of Marinette and slapped what looked like a horse whip on her hand. “We will start your training on wrath, the scoundrel of the sea” Marinette yelps as Shu slaps her shoulder with the whip. 

“CALM” Shu slaps Marinette’s other shoulder. 

“What are you doing? Stop it” Marinette cries bringing her arms up to block Shu’s attack. 

“You have to remain calm Marinette” Tikki says using her old wielders deep and wise sounding voice. “Wrath will have the power to throw everyone into a rage” she walks over to Marinette and sits down in front of her. “Meditate with me Marinette” she orders with a gentle smile, Marinette nods and closes her eyes. 

Shu huffs and slaps Marinette on the back, the girl whimpers but doesn’t move. “You’re a fast learner” she hummed taking a few steps around them.

Marinette opens her eyes and smiles “thank you I-OW” she holds her now whipped cheek.

“But not fast enough” Shu chirped stepping away to look at the view outside. Marinette puffed out her cheeks and Tikki giggled softly. Tikki held her hand and the two focused again.

 

“Marinette girl talk to me, you’re starting to freak me out” Marinette ignored Alya as she finished the icing on a brilliant looking cake. Absentmindedly she rubs the spot the whip had hit during her dream, there was no visible wounds but the sting was still there. 

“I got hit by the akuma yesterday and totally embarrassed myself, so this is how I’m going to apologize” Marinette explains placing the cake into a “to go” box. It was too much work to call each attack a corrupted knight or demon so the public had decided to just call any attack an akuma attack. It saved them from having to change the alarms. Alya chuckled thinking back to how high Marinette jumped when she showed her the photo she took of the two making out. Marinette puts a red bow on the box and hands it to Alya “would you mind delivering it for me?”

“Oh no girl, you’re going to deliver this cake” Alya says immediately, Marinette didn’t know why she thought that would work. Alya puts the box in Marinette’s hands and turns her around to start marching to the door “and I’ll be right behind you for when you trip over your tongue”. 

In front of the more modest apartments where Adrien was now living Marinette caught the eye of someone she wasn’t expecting. “Luka what are you doing here?”

The blue haired boy jumped slightly but relaxed seeing the two girls “Adrien invited me to talk with Nathaniel”. The two’s jaws dropped with an overdramatic gasp not helping how he felt. “Adrien convinced me last night…Nathaniel never let me explain after-“.

Alya presses the loud call button which Adrien picks up after the first ring “uh yeah who is it?”

“It’s me Alya, and I got Marinette and Luka with me” Alya calls into it.

“Luka, oh shoot was that today?” Adrien’s cry is almost covered by the background noise, a bunch of plastic bowls falling and Nino yelling “whoops”. 

“We can come back later if you’d like” Marinette squeaked amazingly without stuttering.

“Hey I didn’t know you had a cat” Nino says in the background, followed immediately by a cat screaming.

“No, no please come up” Adrien says calmly and the front door opens. The trio take a few slow steps then “AND HURRY” yells from the communicator. They bolted up the stairs and throw open the front door. 

The place looked like a pancake batter tornado had blown through it, there’s half made pancakes stuck on the ceiling. Batter all over the counters and floor, a bag of flour had fallen over and dusted everything in its path. Nino was on the floor wrestling with a large black cat with a white head of flour, Adrien was trying to get it off without getting clawed himself.

Luka rushes over to help with the cat while the girls stand stunned. Smoke reaches Marinette’s nose and she spots a kitchen towel on fire in the kitchen, she drops the cake on the cleanest part of the counter and rushes to put it out. The smoke alarm goes off as she turns off the heat and gets the burning towel into the sink, dousing it with water. 

Adrien and Luka manage to get the cat into Adrian’s room and shut the door behind it. Adrien sighs in relief, Nino groans as Alya helps him to his feet. “So what were you guys even doing?” Alya is first to ask trying not to laugh as a pancake falls from the ceiling and onto Adrien’s head.

“I wanted to thank Gorilla for letting me stay here so I wanted to make him dinner” Adrien started taking the pancake off.

“And he asked me to help him, so I figured even an idiot could learn to make pancakes” Nino chimes in checking his arms for cat scratches. 

Alya grinned seeing an opportunity “Marinette will teach you, she’s an amazing cook” she slapped the girl on the back keeping her from running. Marinette eyes were as wide as the pancakes still falling pathetically to the ground around them.

“I don’t know I might be a lost cause” Adrien said with a giggle, and did he have any idea how cute he looked scratching his neck wearing a “kiss the cook” apron? 

Marinette swallowed the lump in her throat, time to call upon the inner ladybug. “You just need practice, but first we need to clean this place up” she gets everyone started with cleaning up the apartment. Nino Luka and Alya cleaned the counters and floors while Marinette and Adrien cleaned the dishes and got out new ingredients. They had just enough to make a new batch. Alya was beaming with pride watching Marinette talk properly with not one but two boys she had a crush on with ease. She was focused on the task at hand and it showed. She had her hands around Adrien’s helping him flip the pancake without shooting it off to the ceiling. 

After a few minutes everyone is admiring a beautiful stack of pancakes, they weren’t perfect circles but no one cared. Luka was putting the eggs away while everyone else sampled the goods “Marinette’s the master chef” Nino announces doing a fake bow to her making everyone laugh. 

“I was just the teacher, it was Adrien who made them” she said turning at the sound of the door opening. 

“Adrien I got your text, what did you need me-“

Nathaniel closes the door and stops seeing everyone “I didn’t realize we were having a pancake party” he says lamely. The fridge closes and the second he sees Luka Nathaniel’s lips formed a tight line. 

“Wait-“Marinette calls when Nathaniel’s arm reached for the door. “-Please give Luka a chance, I’m positive whatever happened between you two was just a misunderstanding”. Marinette never thought she’d be at the receiving end of Nathaniel’s glare but give it time and it might be just as threatening as his fathers. 

“What’s there to misunderstand? I have a pretty good understanding of what that jerk did” Nathaniel hisses crossing his arms. 

“No you don’t Peter and I-“

“-Lured me behind the school to humiliate me I know” Nath snapped cutting Luka off. 

“That’s not what-“Luka actually shakes in anger when Nathaniel turns to leave “WOULD YOU JUST LISTEN” he shouts throwing an empty bottle of water at Nath’s head. It makes a funny “donk” sound when it hits. 

“YOU WANNA GO JERK” Nathaniel whips his head around and lunges at him. 

Marinette and Alya just blankly watch as Nino holds back Luka while Adrien does so with Nath. Screaming and snapping at each other like wild dogs. Alya leans over to Marionette’s ear “at least they’re talking” she says over the yelling. 

“ALRIGHT FINE” Luka yells as Nino loses his grip, Luka took two deep breaths. “This was a waste of time anyway…sorry Adrien” he gives Adrien a side glance then heads out the door. 

Nathaniel didn’t move when Adrien dropped him, “nice going Nath” Nino snapped likely putting his hands on his hips. Nathaniel couldn’t see, crap he couldn’t let everyone see him cry. He couldn’t leave though the front door or he’d risk bumping into Luka. A whimper escapes his throat as he bolts towards the nearest door and slams it shut behind him. 

He’s in a bedroom; based off the size of the bed it was Adrien’s. He collapses next to it and shoves the nearest pillow into his face to muffle the sounds coming out. 

“Nice going Nino” Alya mocks after a second of silence. 

“Poor Nathaniel and Luka, come on Alya let’s try to catch him” Marinette grabs Alya’s hand and they exit though the door. 

-Flash back-  
Nathaniel gasped for breath as he ran to the location Luka and he used as a meeting spot after school. Luka had given the emergency call “snakes on deck”. 

“Luka?” Nathaniel cries running around a corner. He doesn’t see the other boy until he’s smacked into them. He falls to the ground with a cry of surprise; an ugly chuckle makes his hair stand on end. Peter Connard was the type of kid that even adults avoided if they could help it. He was built like a gorilla and constantly smelled like burnt peanut butter. 

“About time you showed up Ariel, I was starting to wonder if fish stick was lying” Peter laughed grabbing Nathaniel by his shoulder and forcing him up. Nathaniel froze seeing Peter’s two goons hanging casually with Luka, one even had his greasy hands on Luka’s shoulder. 

“Luka what’s going on?” Luka doesn’t look at Nathaniel eyes focused on the ground. His black hair hung in his face covering part of his eyes.  
Peter suddenly punches him right in the face. Nath falls to the ground unable to even cry in surprise. Then it’s suddenly like he’s underwater, sounds are garbled and there’s a ringing in his ears. Then a foot collides with his stomach taking the air with it. Nathaniel gasped for breath as one of the goons pulls him up by the hair.  
Nathaniel’s hearing clears up just in time to hear Peter say “you know what Ariel? I think it’s time to pay the sea witch”. Peter has a crazy look in his eyes as he holds up a pair of scissors.  
-flash back end- 

A meow breaks him out of his thoughts; Nath looks up to see a black cat staring at him. Nath uncurled himself and the cat took that as in invitation to crawl into his lap. Nath raised a hand and the cat bumped its head against it. It looked at him with beautiful green eyes and let out another meow. Duusu let out a hushed giggle and sat on Nathaniel’s shoulder to offer her support. “I think that was cat for are you okay” she whispered as the cat leaned in for an ear scratch. 

Luka storms out of the building hands in his pockets, when its clear no one is following him a little figure peeks out of his shirt pocket. “Remember what I told you Luka” Irrin says patting him with his fin. 

Luka took a deep breath “wrath is wielded by those who are calm” his brow scrunches and he clenched his fists. “But it’s so frustrating, Nathaniel just won’t listen” Irrin flew out and winced from a pain in his stomach. 

“Luka calm down” Irrin ordered then tenses in surprise. A giant mosquito had landed on Luka’s neck sticking its needle mouth into his skin. Irrin paled seeing the surrounding skin darken. Luka growled and slapped the bug killing it in one hit. “Calm you have to remain calm” Irrin cried uselessly.

“Why should I?” Luka hissed eyes flashing a dark grey, “If Nathaniel won’t listen than I’ll make him listen. I’ll make everyone listen” the level of “oh fudge” is high on Irrin’s face.  
“Irrin fins out”

Irrin curses as he’s pulled into the brooch, the dark blue gloves are first to appear on Luka’s hands. He drags them though his hair changing the blue to white like an orcas head. The mask appears as he opens his eyes with a mischievous look in them. He thrusts his arms out as the rest of the suit covers him. His boots were pirate like in design; he wore a dark blue trench coat with a split at the bottoms like a fish tail. The guitar appears in his hands and he strums two mute notes than he poses like Jagged Stone on his latest album cover. 

Gorm Orque takes off on his guitar right as Marionette and Alya exit the building. The girls were too distracted searching for the blue haired boy to see him.

 

Night had fallen over Paris as Chloe made a war cry and pounded her fists into a pink punching bag. She wore a black sports bra and dark blue yoga pants. She stood back and pulled her pink boxing gloves off, a smirk on her lips as she wiped the sweat off her head with a pink towel. She stretches and grabs her water bottle catching the eye of Pollen smiling smugly at her. “Fine you were right, taking my frustrations out on the dummy worked” she says it in a bratty tone but the big smile on her face gives her real feelings away. 

“Punching a bag is much more effective than snapping at real people, plus it counts as training” Pollen hums. Chloe’s phone buzzes with a video game sound effect and Pollen eagerly flies over to answer it.

“You still texting Jalil?” Chloe asks peeking over Pollen to see the conversation bubbles. Her brow raises seeing pictures of paper with strange markings on them.

“We’re using hieroglyphics” Pollen explains proudly, “after all as an archaeologist in training working at the latest dig in Egypt it’s important to keep my ancient languages in good practice”. 

Chloe smirks taking a swig of her water “you built up a whole persona for yourself…Polly Honeycomb?” 

“I think it’s cute” Pollen squeaked defensively, Chloe opens her mouth but a thud outside makes her jump. Pollen ducks under a pillow seconds before a gloved hand knocks on the wood outside. Chloe walks over and sees none other than Paon bleu on the other end. His eyes soft as he waits with one arm hidden behind his back. 

Chloe bites her lip and opens the door to let him in “Paon, to what do I owe the pleasure” is what Chloe wishes she thought to say. To make herself sound like a grand duchess in one of those cheesy old fashioned romances she watched sometimes. But instead she says: “What do you want?” 

“I just wanted to check up on you, make sure you were alright” Paon mutters as he looks down at his feet. “I also found this and wanted to give it to you” he added forcing himself to meet her eye. “So uh here” he pulls out a purple hyacinth flower from behind his back. 

On old instinct Chloe reaches for where her phone would be. A superhero in her room with a flower would be perfect on her Instagram. She could humiliate him like he humiliated her, the perfect revenge. Her hand freezes on the device, but what would that do? She would hurt a teammate. She moved her hand to take the flower instead, Paon’s eyes scan Chloe and his face flushed. Chloe yelped realizing she was still in her sports bra; quickly she grabs her pink silken robe and throws it on. 

“So uh…you’ve taken up kickboxing?” Paon squeaks glancing around the room and spotting the punching bag in the corner of Chloe’s bedroom.  
“Yea I’ve been taking my frustrations out on it” Chloe says putting the flower in her water bottle, she’d ring for a new one when he left. “Wait a minute” Paon flinched at Chloe’s sly smirk “aren’t you supposed to be at the studio for that interview?” 

“Well uh, yeah I just wanted to uh clear my conscience before I went on” Paon babbled leaning back as Chloe leaned in with that smirk. 

“Well thank you” she purred leaning back to his hearts relief, “but are you sure that was your only reason?” 

“What other reason would I have?” Paon squeaked feeling every part of his face heat up, he’s turned away so he doesn’t see Chloe holding her mouth to keep the laughter in. 

“Hate to interrupt” Chat’s voice comes from the balcony. The two look to see Chat’s glowing eyes staring at them. Carapace was to his left leaning against the glass with his arms crossed. “Wouldn’t want you to be late” he chirps walking in and putting an arm around Paon. “Sorry Chloe but this bird needs to fly the coop, au revoir” Chloe is too busy holding in her laughter to reply. The look on Paon’s face was epic.

“What are you guys doing here?” Paon whispered as Chat lead them to the edge of the balcony, for once Paon looked down and felt a little sick. Maybe he should stay home.

“Ladybug wanted to make sure you didn’t sneak out on the interview, so we’re here to escort you” Carapace chirps. Paon shot him a look he hoped was annoyed but it came out more as panicked. 

“Hurry Mamma the shows about to start” Lila cries running into the living room with a bowl of popcorn. She was dressed in her summer pajamas which was a pair of purple pants and tank top with cute flowers on them. Her mamma still in her business suit sat down on the couch carrying a plate of pizza.

“I’m glad to see you’ve warmed up to the miraculous hero’s” she said watching Lila sit down on the floor cross legged. 

“Not all of them” Lila says turning to her Mamma and crossing her arms “Ladybug isn’t that great but Paon-“. Stars light up behind her eyes “-Paon Bleu is amazing” her mother giggles again as the show begins. “I’m sure he’s going to be awesome” she adds imagining him waiting outside the view of cameras. He always looked so cool and collected, ready to blow away anyone who opposed him.

“I changed my mind you can’t make me go out there” Paon whines holding onto a pole in the backstage room. Chat and Carapace were grabbing his back feathers and pulling him towards the door.

“You don’t really have a choice Paon, just get it over with” Carapace grunts. Paon could have a strong grip when he wanted to, his nails were actually denting the pole.  
A robotic voice gave the two minute warning, “this calls for drastic action” Chat hisses. He separates one of the fake back feathers and pulls it free. He and Carapace share a look of fear and determination, to get him out there they’d have to really make him mad. 

Paon tenses as a feather brushes his gut “are you?” His jaw clenched “you guys know I hate being tickled”. Chat doesn’t stop and starts tickling Paon’s neck, unlike some people who laughed when being tickled. Paon twitched and hissed like a wild animal. Chat smirks sticking the feather right in Paon’s face making Paon let go with one hand and swipe at him. 

Carapace sees his chance and pulls with all his might. Paon yelps as he loses his grip and is shot off out the door. 

“He’s so going to kick our butts once this is over” Carapace says as they do a fist bump. 

“But it’s worth it” Chat purrs with a cheeky grin. 

There’s a shy knock at the doorway, “Paon may I talk with you?” she reveals herself eyes cast to the floor.

“Licorne” Chat says as she walks in “you just missed Paon, he’s on air now”. Licorne’s face flashed with disappointment, so much so that Chat’s gentleman instinct kicked in. “But you can wait for him here” he gestured to a chair and jumped on the makeup table to sit on like a cat would. 

Licorne gave a small smile and sat down on the chair, she fiddled with her hands uncomfortably. Carapace had moved his shield to his arm and was ready to block if need be, Licorne couldn’t blame him.

Paon flips out his fans and uses them to backflip and land on his feet. “Paon Bleu, always one to make an entrance” the interviewer says with a joyous laugh. Paon gives a mother of a stink eye towards his two so called teammates than turns to face him.

It was Alec Cataldi, no way in hell was Paon going to enjoy being interviewed by Mr. Cleans cousin. Alec sat on a red chair and gestured to one opposite him. Paon forced his eyes to stay on him and not on the giant camera following his moment. He could do this, just stick to the answers he had practiced with Duusu. 

“Alright Ladies and Gentlemen let me introduce Paon Bleu one of Miraculous Hero’s and as of late the one finishing off these corrupt. So Paon care to tell us more why you’re here?”

Right into it, Paon unconsciously grabbed at his back feathers that had twisted to his front from siting down. “I’m here to explain to everyone who the corrupt are and how my team and I plan to defeat them…the corrupt…the corrupt are caused by a darkened soul strike, Le Paon used it on a number of people”.

“But Le Paon’s gone obviously” Alec chirped earning a few snickers from the people behind the camera. Paon bit his lip and tugged on one of the feathers.

He thought back to the past corrupt, to himself “People who become the corrupt might not know for weeks, no one remembers when Le Paon shot them”. One of his hands moves to his chest “it appears as a black mark on the skin, and its tender to the touch”.

Lila’s hand froze with a handful of popcorn, it drops back into the bowl and she lifts her shirt just enough to check her gut. Right where her belly button was there was a black patch of skin. Her mind flashes back to blurred memories of her last time as an akuma, Masquerade had jabbed her with something black and gooey. She turned her attention back to the TV and grabbed her knees to hug herself. 

“Ah yes that’s really interesting, Paon really but let’s get to the real reason so many viewers wanted you here” Alec has a smirk that Paon does not like. Alec brings an iPad to his lap and brings some photos on the big screen. 

“What we want to know…is has the peacock been sinful?” 

Paon wonders if he’s having some taco bell enriched nightmare. On the screen were photos of him and the three known knights of sin. Raion and him after their battle and shaking hands, him blushing after Gorm called him beautiful, and even one of him tackling Licorne the other day. He doesn’t know what to say, all answers he had practiced have vanished from his head. 

“And we just received word that Licorne has entered the building, did something happen after you saved her?” Alec continues as if he didn’t just drop a bombshell on Paon. 

Chloe bites a book in her hands “why aren’t they showing me? I’ve had more couple moments with him then those freaks”. Pollen sighs from her doll sized cup of tea, Chloe missed the point once again. Pollen goes to take a sip of tea and yelps at the heat, she stares in disbelief as it boils in her cup. Then both she and Chloe tense up seeing the water bottle with the flower start to boil. 

“Chloe we need to get out of here now!” Pollen’s tone leaves no time to question. They race over to the balcony throwing open the doors. 

“Pollen Stingers out” Chloe cries leaping off the balcony and transforming midair. She replaced the dance sequence with spinning then released her wings before she hit the ground. 

Lila growls and pouts while her mamma leaves to put the dishes in the washer. Who cares who Paon was seeing? She wanted answers and she needed them now. Unseen by her is an orange light zipping out from behind a pillow and following her out the door. She just misses the steam that escaped from the taps which made her mamma start throwing plates in a blind rage. 

“I’ll clear this up” a new voice wakes Paon out of his shock. He stands and sees Gorm approaching them. Funny he didn’t remember him wearing a captain’s pirate hat. Pipes broke and shot out steam behind him as he walked towards them, his coat flew out behind him as result.

“He belongs to me” Gorm purrs eyes flashing the most beautiful blue Paon had ever seen. It was almost like glitter was within them. Paon’s eyes grow wide and his irises change to the same colour. He closes his eyes and falls forward, Gorm catches him with a smirk. 

“Hey you can’t do that” Alec snaps with the top of his head red from anger. 

“What are you going to do about it?” Gorm purrs sticking his tongue out to show off a silver stud. Alec roars and lunges at him, uncharacteristically moving to throw a punch. Gorm side steps him easily sending the taller man into an embarrassing flop over the chair.

The doors slam open revealing Chat, Carapace and Licorne. “Just where do you think you’re going?” Chat snaps and the three charge. Gorm moves Paon to over his shoulders and his guitar is summoned to his arms, he slams a note down that erupts into a small sound wave knocking them to the ground. 

“Anger makes you clumsy, maybe you should sit this on out” Gorm purrs as Carapace gets to his feet and chucks the shield at him. Gorm doesn’t have to dodge since it missed and clanged loudly on the floor. 

“I AM NOT ANGRY” Licorne pulls off her horn and presses a button that shoots a rope out. She swings the lasso at his head but he easily catches it and pulls it to knock her off balance. Chat moves to pounce but trips over Carapace’s shield and hisses loudly in pain. 

“Why’d you put the shield there stupid?” Chat hissed glaring daggers at Carapace. 

“OH I’m sorry, forgot you’re a klutz” Carapace snaps back only for Chat to pounce on him. 

“Would you idiots focus, this is the wraths power” Licorne cries catching the other crew members in similar fights around the room. 

“Or better yet, lose yourselves to the rage” Gorm purrs playing a few notes on his guitar. Two large bubbles shoot out of the end and onto Chat and Carapace’s heads. They cry out as the bubbles crackle with power and they’re unable to claw them off. Licorne shivers as they open their eyes to reveal their irises were gone and replaced with a glowing dark blue. 

“Uh maybe we could just talk about it, have some cookies and milk” Licorne squeals as they stalk towards her. 

Lila slips between two men arguing with each other over a bottle of cola and slows to a stop outside. Riots of people were fighting with one another, cars were crashing and curses were thrown freely. Lila makes a fist and tries to make her way through it, one wrong step and she’s thrown into an ally by a pissed off pizza man. “How am I supposed to get my answers now?” she moans sliding down behind a dumpster to pout. 

“You could always fly” a slightly scratchy voice offers from above her. 

“Chrysalid I appreciate it but I really don’t want to be Volpina again thank you very much” Lila huffs not looking up. 

“Good cause a vulture isn’t a fox” 

Lila looks up confused; instead of the butterfly she expected there’s a tiny bird with a huge head. It seemed to glow orange slightly as it flew close to her face with a determined smirk on its beak. “My name is Tutti, and I’d like to offer you a deal” he chirps landing on her knee.

“A deal” Lila echo’s leaning back nervously. The last time she made a deal she got stuck with the black mark and a creepy message.

Tutti’s eyes softened and his nubby arms are nibbled by his beak. “Yes uh…I’d give you the power you need to get what you want and in return you save Wrath before Ladybug hurts him” Lila raised an eyebrow.

“Save wrath from Ladybug”

“Is there an Echo?” Tutti fires earning an eye roll from the girl. “Look something about you draws me to you, I believe we can be a great team if you give me the chance” with a bright flash that makes Lila flinch two golden hoop earrings appeared in his beak. Lila hesitates for a moment but takes them; Tutti did his best to explain what they could do.

“With these I’ll get the info I need?” Lila asks standing up and putting the earrings on her ears. Tutti nods and flies in front of her. Lila smirks and gives the hoops a flick “then let’s do this”.

“Tutti talons out”

Tutti is sucked into the earrings in a flash. The hoops gain five smaller hoops inside them. Lila snaps her fingers as the bright orange mask covers her eyes. She raises her left hand and a golden hoop appears above her head, she throws her hand down bringing the hoop with it. The hoop replaces her pajamas with a skin tight orange and brown suit with a fluffy white neck piece. She crosses her arms and two bangle style gold bracelets appear on her wrists as well as her ankles. Her hair gains three more golden hoops around the pig and ponytails. She bends down as a cape releases from her back dropping down made of brown feathers Finally two hoops the size of a halo appear in her hands which she clangs together and poses with one arm in the air and the other in a punch in front. 

When the light dies down she takes a moment to admire herself. Than with an excited laugh her wings that rested like a cloak sprang to life and shot her up into the clouds. 

Paon groans when he opens his eyes, he’s sitting in a darkened room that seems to be glowing with a black light. Like a bowling alley he’s been to once or twice on a school trip. He can feel the floor dipping and rocking, he must have been on a boat of some kind. He slowly gets to his feet trying to remember how he got here, he was at that god awful interview and then… 

The door swings open revealing a figure in the moonlight, Paon flips his fans out ready to fight. “Good to see you awake welcome aboard my ship” Gorm purrs tipping the captains hat playfully. 

“Why did you bring me here?” Paon asks deciding to put the fans down for now, something about Gorm’s smile warned him of thin ice. 

Gorm sighed and narrowed the distance between them “because the voice in my head says they need you”. Paon must have made a face at that because Gorm let out a laugh, “plus I couldn’t help myself, you’re just so beautiful”.

“Uh thanks?” Paon squeaks tensing as Gorm grabbed the side of his face. Gorm’s eyes had gone cold, like the Arctic Ocean during a storm. 

“You’re so beautiful” Gorm mused moving Paon’s head to look him in the eye, “it’s always pissed me off that you hide in the shadows of your teammates”. Paon flinches as something explodes beside them; he turns to see it was a water pipe now shooting steam. 

He had to calm him somehow, “I got your attention didn’t I?” he purrs leaning into Gorm’s hand ignoring the slight fish smell.

Gorm chuckles and Paon sees is as a victory, the steam cooling to a small drip. “After this is over I will have everyone see you as the star you really are” he promises taking Paon’s  
hand to give it a kiss. He moves to leave but Paon grabs his hand.

“What are you planning to do?” Paon weakly asks.

“A few years ago I got into a fight with my best friend, and he never let me explain what had happened” Gorm explains looking back as the ship groans loudly. “So I’m going to make him understand, and I’m going to start by destroying Peter Connard” Paon gasps and Gorm frowns. 

Paon can’t move in time to avoid the Gorm’s cold hand. His eyes are icy as he tilts Paon’s chin to face him. “But don’t worry about it beautiful, just sit here and let me take care of you” his eyes glowed as he spoke. Paon’s eyes copied the light, the blue stars sinking deeper in his mind. 

“…okay” he mumbles body going limp against the wall, Gorm smiles and leaves him there. 

On the other side of the door was the ship steering wheel, Gorm drags his hand over it and chuckles. “Let’s get this storm started shall we?” he asks no one and his guitar starts to play. The ship gains a dusty blue glow covers the ship and the water below changes into steam. Physics breaks as the ship is lifted into the air and sails off above Paris. 

Ladybug groans as she swings over the buildings, everyone and she mean everyone was furious. Just about everywhere she looked people were arguing or having a fist fight. She had already given up trying to get them to stop; it would only make her more frustrated. She lands on the rooftop and lets out a few big breaths, practicing the calming exercises might be her only hope.

She flicks her yo-yo phone out and goes for the group call option, but before she can speak the yo-yo is knocked away by a sword. Raion blasts by her so quickly Ladybug felt the heat from her claws; Raion grabs her sword and steps on the yo-yo. “Ladybug I cannot allow you to go after Gorm” she hisses pointing the blade at Ladybug’s head.

Ladybug’s face flushed red but she put her hands up in surrender “Raion I promise you I don’t want to hurt Gorm, but I need to stop him before Paris destroys itself”.

“You will not kill another knight” Raion cries and moves to attack, Ladybug misses getting her head cut off by sheer luck. 

“I never-“Ladybug dodges another strike and flips to her yo-yo. She spins it to create a shield to stop the next dozen attacks “why would-“. Her frustration grows as Raion distracts her with the sword and sweeps out her feet with her leg “WOULD YOU JUST-“.

“Ladybug” Queen Bee’s voice reminds Ladybug to keep her cool. Raion also stops her attack upon seeing the person she was with. 

“Who is that Bee…and what are you wearing?” Ladybug blurts noticing the big yellow gas mask now that Bee was close.

Bee adjusts the mask careful not to break the seal “there’s a gas floating around that’s making everyone angry, I had this added to my costume”. If Bee was being honest the gas mask was a total surprise but she knew Pollen wouldn’t have put it on unless it was required. She was not going to admit how funny it made her voice, like a buzzing bee hum after each word. She gestures to the other person “and I ran into her on my way here, says she knows how to stop Gormy”.

The girls eyes sparkle with such ugly pride Ladybug wonders if she knows her from somewhere. “My name is Avv…ina Avvina, I am the strongest knight of sin” she claimed coming for a landing making her hoops clang against her outfit. “Ladybug you and Bee work on crowd control while I take down Gorm with my powers, Raion you can work with them”.

“Excuse me?” Raion hissed clenching a fist to control the wrath induced anger “just what makes you think you can show up and start bossing us around?”

“I second that” Bee chimed crossing her arms. 

Avvina shook her head as if she was speaking to three year old's. “Because I have the power to stop Gorm, besides I’m not affected by the steam” perhaps years of boasting and fibbing had made her able to keep a straight face regardless of truth. 

The group turns at the sound of wood groaning, a ship straight out of never land drifted over the rooftops spraying the wrath inducing steam. “Try not to get in trouble Ladybug, doesn’t look like Chat Noir is here to save your butt” Avvina taunts then flies towards the ship. Ladybug is so tempted to snag her ankle and bring her off her high horse, but that wouldn’t solve anything. 

She turns to Raion and releases her anger with a big breath. “Raion I promise you I won’t hurt any of your knights, let’s work together to stop him” Raion’s face darkens but she closes her eyes to quiet the anger. Opening them and nodding to Ladybug. 

Avvina closed in on the ship with a smirk on her face. It quickly falls off when steam blows in her direction, she grunts trying to fight against it but it’s too strong. She flies back and crashes into someone behind her.

“Whoa girl you need to watch the wind” Rena says with a chuckle. Her voice slightly muffled by the orange gas mask on her face. Avvina shot her a glare that Rena completely ignores. “Follow me, I think I see a way in” she orders shooting down and gliding around to the left side of the ship. Avvina considers doing her own thing but decides against it. The fox could be the smart one this time.

Rena stops at the bottoms of the boat and crawls her way to a window. Avvina peers though it and spots Paon inside, lying limp on the floor. She readies her boot which was decorated with sharp toes like a birds talons to kick it open. Rena stops her and brings a finger to where her lips would be, then points to above them. Gorm’s shadow was right above them quietly whistling a tune over the wind. 

Gorm smiles coming to the old street where Peter lived, he moves his hand and water forms above the deck into human shapes. “Ready the cannons” he orders to them and they scramble to their positions. “Aim-“the cannons are loaded and positioned “fi-“.

A trompo spins out of nowhere and bounces against the wood. In the blink of an eye it destroys each water person and lands back in Queen Bee’s hands. Gorm growls as Ladybug and Raion land on the ship in fighting poses. “You have some nerve joining sides with a killer Raion” he snaps forcing the ship to do a sharp left. 

Rena and Avvina groan as they hold on to the ship, Rena gestures for them to climb and slip onto the deck unnoticed. Bee was too busy using both weapons to full advantage, hitting the trompo like a golf ball towards Gorm’s minions. Ladybug was trying to tangle Gorm’s hands with her yo-yo while Raion charged him.

“You will yield Gorm, stop this madness” Raion commands pressing her sword down against his guitar. Ladybug opened her yo-yo’s light and moved it towards his miraculous. 

“Why don’t you let your real feelings bubble to the surface” Gorm replies knocking Raion back and firing another bubble at Raion’s head. Ladybug gulps as Raion turns to her with the dark lights replacing her usual eyes. 

The two orange heroes’ sneak inside the captions corridors and stop by Paon. Rena gently got on her knees and shook the bird trying to wake him.  
Paon doesn’t even stir, Avvina stands up patience gone. “I want my answers damn it” she stomps her foot accidently breaking the wood under it. Before Rena can call her a birdbrain the door slams open. Rena curses as Chat and Carapace step though and chuck a dazed Licorne their way. Carapace cracks his knuckles as they approach, Rena bends low and readies her flute. 

Avvina clicks her tongue and swings her arms; a golden hoop shoot out of her hands and one catches Chat’s wrist and traps him against the wall. Rena and Licorne watch in awe as she opens her wings to appear bigger and fires more hoops from her waist and even her ankles. Carapace uses the shield to block most but one snags his ankle trapping him to the ground.

When she’s done Avvina stands proudly “now to get what I want” she throws a hand up and all her hoops glow. “ALL MINE” she cries summoning her power. 

Two blue clam shaped walkie-talkie toy lands in her hands. She holds them up questionably “how is this supposed to help?” she mumbles puffing her cheeks out. 

“Cool, your power is like Ladybug’s lucky charm” Licorne chirps recovering from her dizziness. “Oh and I’m Licorne, it’s so nice to meet you” she holds a hand out for Avvina to shake.

“Yeah sure” Avvina says ignoring the hand and the hurt look that passed Licorne’s face. 

Rena joined the carrying Paon on one shoulder “maybe you need a change of scenery to know what to do with it, come on girls”. The two follow the fox passing Chat and Carapace still trapped in awkward poses. 

“Lucky charm” Ladybug cries once Bee had both Raion and Gorm distracted. “Mosquito bite cream?” she scans the battle to form a plan. She spots Rena, Licorne and Avvina coming out of the cabin with Rena carrying Paon. 

Bee yelps and uses her dipper to block Raion’s flaming sword. “Okay you really need to cool off” she yells lamely knocking Raion into a puddle on the floor. Gorm takes the opportunity to send a stream of water at Bee’s gas mask knocking it off. Licorne knowing full well an angry Bee isn’t a pleasant one goes after it and catches it with her lasso. 

Avvina and Rena are still trying to figure out the walkie-talkies, Avvina gets frustrated enough she tries hitting Paon with the device on the head. 

Rena stops her hand “oh come on you should know that won’t work” Avvina pouts and crosses her arms. 

“Looks like you’re not as immune to the steam as you thought” Bee snaps after placing her gas mask back on. 

“Time you all faced the music” Gorm yells jumping above everyone and slamming a note down “OCEAN’S WRATH”. Water erupts from the weapon and forms into a visible sound wave. They pass Raion without touching her but the others are blasted back. Rena and Avvina drop the toy trying to stay grounded but the wave is too much. The wave left Paon there with the walkie-talkie by his face. 

Ladybug gasps and uses her yo-yo to wrap around a post. Rena, Bee, Licorne and even Avvina grab onto her to hold on. The moon peeks out from behind the clouds and Ladybug’s spots the huge black bite on Gorm’s neck.

One of the walkie-talkies springs to life “Nath I need you here, snakes on deck” Luka’s younger voice makes Paon groan and his eyelid twitch. 

Gorm runs over to Paon and picks up one of the walkie-talkies “I’m on my way captain” a young Nathaniel’s voice came out of it. 

“What is…” Gorm mumbles but his attention is stolen by the hero’s recovering from his attack. he signals for Raion to free Chat and Carapace in his cabin while he held them off. 

“Hey I did what you told me, now delete the photos and let him go” Luka’s voice continued. Paon opened his eye lazily but it was still the starry blue. 

“I’ve changed my mind I think I’m going show the school anyway” Peter’s voice came in next. 

“That was our deal” Luka cried and there was a sound of a struggle, ending with what sounded like Luka smashing a camera on the ground destroying it. Peter cursed and Luka cries out in pain, “NO DON’T HURT HIM”.

Paon’s eyes return to normal as the stars fall out with tears coming down his face. “Luka…” he breaths picking up one of the toys. 

“I have had it with your catitude” Chat cries making Paon look up. The scene in front of him is rather amusing. Chat was actually butting heads with Bee who must have inhaled the angry steam by accident. “I could say the same for your beehavior” Bee cries back pulling his hair. Avvina is trying to gracefully dodge Gorm’s attacks but runs right into Raion’s out of control flames.  
Rena tries to stamp the flames out only for Avvina to attack her yelling “foxes suck” or something like That. Licorne was singing heavy metal as she pounced on Gorm and tried to piggyback her way to victory. 

Ladybug’s earrings cry in warning, she spots Paon up and awake “Paon grab the guitar”. Paon does as he’s told, the sooner he finished this the sooner he could find Luka. Gorm hisses and wrestles to free his weapon. With a back flip she dodges Carapace’s swing and trips him with the yo-yo. “Avvina your hoops” Ladybug calls her attention, Avvina nods and the golden band around her waist glows and expands into a hula hoop. She spins it around her waist and moves it to her hand to fire at Gorm. The second the hoop touches Gorm it wraps around him trapping him. Ladybug charges and opens her yo-yo’s light. Gorm cries out as she places the yo-yo over his bite wound sucking out the poison.

“Miraculous ladybug” 

When the bugs had disappeared the ship is back at the harbor and the hero’s awkwardly get off one another. Gorm’s costume was still on but had lost the pirate hat, his miraculous was on its second last warning. This reminded Ladybug she didn’t have a lot of time. 

“Thank you Ladybug” Raion is first to speak as she helps Gorm to his feet. He chuckles awkwardly in that “I’m so screwed” kind of way as Licorne brings him up to speed on what just happened. Raion turns to Avvina and offers a paw “and welcome to the knights of sin Avvina, I’m sure we will learn to work together”.

Avvina scoffs and crosses her arms “as if I want to join a team with a useless leader. You had two knights turn bad on you in less than a week” she flicks her earrings hearing them give another warning. “I’ll pass on being knighted thanks” Raion drops her hand and her face remained neutral. But Gorm can feel the temperature rise around her. “Paon if you could…” Avvina trails off seeing Paon had vanished, she huffs and takes off into the air. 

Ladybug puts a hand on Raion’s shoulder “leadership is hard, you’ll get the hang of it” she offers with a shy smile. Her earrings give their final warning and she stays just long enough for the “pound it” then heads off before she loses the costume. There was a lot they needed to discuss, but that could wait for another night. 

Anarka Couffaine yawned as she made her way to the door. Who was knocking on the door at this time of night? She opened the door ready to complain but it stops in her throat “Nathaniel” the redhead looks up at her awkwardly. 

“Sorry for the hour Mme Couffaine, is…Luka here” Nath says quietly, Anarka doesn’t hesitate in opening the door wide.

“He should be in his room” she mumbles as he walks past. 

The room is empty when Nathaniel walks in, deciding he couldn’t back out now he sits on the bed and waits. A second later there’s a blue flash from inside the bathroom and Luka mumbles something about tuna stinking up his shirt. Luka opens the door and freezes seeing Nath on his bed, Nath quickly scrambles to his feet. “Hi Luka…” he squeaks to fill the silence. 

Luka remains frozen and Nathaniel swallows nervously “I’m sorry for being so stubborn…I should have heard you out years ago”. 

Both of them remember the day after the attack, when Luka found Nathaniel walking though the hallway with his hair cut shorter than it had ever been. He kept his head low not looking at Luka as he called out to him. 

“Nath wait it’s not-“ Luka’s grabs Nathaniel’s shoulder only for Nath to turn and punch him in the face. With a cry he falls to the floor and Nathaniel follows for another blow, a teacher grabs him and yanks him into the air. 

“DON’T YOU EVER TALK TO ME AGAIN!” Nath screams as he’s pulled away. Luka can only hold the sure to be black eye as another teacher tries to help him up. 

“I understand if you never want to be friends again” Nathaniel says back in Luka’s room. The wind blowing through the open window cools his overheated cheeks. Only then does he realise he had started to cry “I wouldn’t want to be my friend-“.

Luka runs and crashes into him, trapping him with his arms. Nathaniel grabs onto the back of Luka’s jacket like it was his life line. They fall to the floor unable to stay standing. “Of course I’ll be your friend…I just wanted you to listen to me” Luka chuckles with tears sliding down his face. 

Caline groans as her cell phone goes off waking her up. Her hand grabs the device “hello?” she mumbles not even thinking to check caller ID.

“Hey Caline, just wanted you to know Nathaniel’s here” Anarka whispers warmly, she gently closes the bedroom door where the boys were talking. “They’re finally talking” she adds sitting down on her own bed. 

Caline gets out of bed and goes to Nathaniel’s room to confirm he wasn’t there anymore. The window was wide open indicating he had slipped out that way. “He is so grounded tomorrow” she chuckles into the phone earning a hushed laugh from the other woman.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Avvoltoio is vulture in Italian, I figured Lila would want an "ina" added to the end of her super hero name like she did with volpina.  
> I don't know if Peter will show up later in the story but if you didn't already know you should search up his last name. I'm not very subtle.


	8. Anime convention

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I took an idea that never made it into Feather's up and adjusted it into here. And being a dummy I thought that would make writing it easy, I was wrong. I even fell asleep at one point and woke up to 46 pages of "h" on my laptop. Not my proudest moment. 
> 
> Anyway thanks for reading, and feel free to leave a comment or a kudos. :)

Buzzing

The constant buzzing of mosquitoes would drive anyone mad. Slapping the irritable insects and not relaxing until they were all dead. A female dressed in white sat in a cloud of these bugs with a hood covering most of her frizzy blonde hair. She sighs and holds a hand out for one of the larger ones to rest on.

She got to her feet and took a few shaky steps across the rocky surface. It could have been mistaken for space had there been any stars, the surface she stood upon was uneven and dead like a meteor. There was one other organic thing where she was and it was long dead. “It’s pathetic isn’t it Emilie?” she whispers gently poking the fleshy blob that was once a demon. “He succeeded in his plan to free all the demons from here and this is how he ends up” she smiled as Emilie stirred in her mind. 

“He did what he had to for his family to escape this dimension, to get away from you” her voice has an echo as a side effect of being trapped within her own mind.

“To get away from us” the lady corrected watching her mosquitoes land on the demon blob and their bellies filled with its blood. “My mosquitoes can do wonders with demons blood. I have put hawk moth to shame” she opens her arms looking like a child awaiting a hug in their over sized coat. 

“Don’t you mean our mosquitoes?” Emilie teased making the woman pout “and just like Hawk moth the miraculous hero’s defeat everything you throw at them, not even the corrupt stand a chance”.

The woman made a fist than relaxed and stuck her nose in the air. “I am only testing the waters dear Emilie” she purred watching several mosquitoes crawl up her arm. They were hungry but wouldn’t dare bite her not unless they wished to see their wings peeled. “Our ticket out lies inside one I cannot touch and I need to know why” she muttered remembering her previous failed attempts. 

“Perhaps there is more to the boy than meets the eye” Emilie mused. 

“Perhaps” the white lady echoed looking to the sound of wind whooshing, she smiled at the figure in a rotted black cloak. It handed her an oil lamp and bowed before flying off into the darkness. “I’m going to give you a break dear demon-“she turned back to the blob earning an annoyed buzz from her insects. What were they expected to eat if not from him? “-I’m going to play with a different toy for a while” she took two steps and kneeled down at what looked like a puddle of foggy water. She waved her hand over it and it cleared to a view of a city’s rooftops “Let’s see how wishful the city of light can be” she hums watching a purple and red smoke slide though the tiny portal. 

A thin man with a large beard sighed as he drew what appeared to be a cover for a comic book. He was using a drawing tablet so the only sound in the room was his soft breathing. Suddenly the door slams open and a woman runs in. He jumps up accidentally knocking the tablet into the air, “no, no please no” he cries juggling the device trying to grab it. The tablet tumbles to the floor and he runs his hands though his hair mumbling a curse. 

The woman sheepishly looked down at her hands “I wanted to let you know the taxi is here. Sorry about your tablet Ted”.

Ted picks up the tablet to find the screen black and cracked. “I just hope it saved…” he mutters putting it back on his desk with another big sigh. “I still have so much to do; I wish this comic would write itself. Then maybe I wouldn’t be dreading going to this convention” he adds grabbing his bag and putting the cracked tablet inside. As he turns to follow the woman a red smoke slips inside the bag.

“Your wish is my command” 

 

“Grounded” Nathaniel squeaked nearly dropping his spoon for his cereal. 

“You heard me buddy, as happy as I am for you and Luka burying the hatchet I can’t have you sneaking out like that. What if you had gotten hurt?” 

As a kid that had been sneaking out for years to do super hero work without ever getting caught Nath is stumped on what to do. Nathaniel put his hands together like a prayer  
“can’t it wait till tomorrow? The manga and cosplay convention is here and my favorite manga artist is only there today”.

“Should have thought of that before you went out the window at night” Caline replied with an amused twinkle in her eye. Nathaniel groaned and pushed his bowl away just enough so he could lay his head on the table and wallow in his sorrow. She finished her breakfast burrito and tossed her purse over her shoulders “I need to grab some groceries, wanna come?” 

“No thanks” is his muffled reply; Caline had to bite her cheek to keep from laughing. If Nathaniel took up drama he would be a natural at it.

“Alright but you stay here, if I catch you at the convention I’m taking your phone away” she gets another groan in reply and chuckles heading out the door. 

Once he’s sure she’s not coming back Nath bolts upstairs breakfast forgotten. Duusu zips out from his pocket as he opens his closet and pulls out the hat Duusu hadn’t seen in a while. The black cat eared toque Chloe had given him a while ago as a present during their shopping trip. He throws it on and stands in front of the mirror trying to hide his hair under it. She catches on to his plan “oh no you don’t Nath you’re grounded remember”.

“But my favorite manga artist is only showing up today, I have to meet him” Nathaniel whined flashing a dose of puppy eyes.

“Those won’t work on me” Duusu says putting her nubs where her hips would be. “You have to listen to your mother Nathaniel” she adds pulling the hat off making his hair poof out all goofy. Nathaniel slumped but didn’t argue. 

Nathaniel moves when his phone buzzes with a snapchat notification. It’s a picture of Adrian wearing a Naruto style headband with the words “you ready for today?”  
Nath didn’t bother smiling as he took a picture, Duusu made a face for the camera in an attempt to cheer him up. Once he took the photo to send she disappeared from frame, he half wondered if humans would ever make a camera advanced enough to catch a kwami. 

Nath sighed and tossed the phone on the bed. He sat on his bed and picked up a manga book he had under his pillow. The cover had a couple dancing surrounded by red rose petals. Their outfits were of the superhero design, the shorter man dressed in a white suit with silky wings trailing to the floor. The other, Duusu had to suppress a giggle. Despite the big hat and the black colouring, the man’s costume was very similar to Paon Bleu’s. Although the kwami could change some things on the costume or change it completely the first design was based on the wearer’s wishes. It seemed Nathaniel had a certain hero in mind when they first transformed. Underneath the pair were the title and the author’s name: Two birds, one dance by T.A. 

“He both writes and illustrates his manga’s” Nath muttered opening it up to a random page. It displayed the two fighting a woman in a red 1950s gown. “And he never goes to these conventions, he’s always so busy” he adds looking to the window. Duusu sighed knowing how badly he wanted to fly out there, but rules were rules. 

“I’m sure you’ll find something to do” she hummed looking over at his desk and the many scattered drawings on it. Nathaniel picked up one page that had a rough sketch of Paon Bleu on it and a ghost of a smirk brushed over his face. Duusu caught on and shook her head no.

“Come on, it’ll only be for a few minutes so mom will never see me” Nath argued. “I’ll buy you peanut butter cookies” he adds with a teasing sing song. Duusu’s face paled and her mouth watered. Peanut butter cookies from the bakery were her favorite food ever. But she wasn’t so obsessed that she would take a bribe. 

“I’ll even get the ones with the Reese’s pieces”

Seconds later Paon is running on the rooftops. Duusu prays the other Kwami never find out about this.

Paon let out a gleeful squeal as he launched over the building, he was really going to meet T.A. Sure he couldn’t use his superhero status to cut in line, Ladybug would have his head if he did. But so long as he got there fast he could beat the traffic, and he could go fast. His eyes trail up to the sky at a rainbow that appeared from the morning shower.  
Suddenly Paon’s vision is bombarded with colour; the rainbow became twice the size it normally was. Colours Paon couldn’t describe were all over the sky overwhelming his senses. In his shock he doesn’t see the window until it’s too late. 

Adrien slipped his phone into his pocket and joined the growing crowd of anime fans. Nino was right behind him with both hands in his pockets. Adrien would point out some cosplayers and tell him their character names and some random stuff about their anime. To which Nino would either nod along somewhat amused or inwardly groaning for Adrien to get a life. He’d be lying if he said he had no interest at all in the material but watching whole seasons in two days was not something to brag about. Booths left and right were selling merchandise that were way overpriced, lines were already forming in front of signing booths. Adrian paused in front of one with T.A in bold red letters, already there was a massive line waiting for the artist. Than something else caught Adrian’s eye and he zoomed in by Naruto running. Nino walks behind him pulling the rim of his hat down embarrassed until a little turtle squeaks about being squished.

“Ready Pollen” Chloe whispered from behind a wall.

“Ready” Pollen whispered.

Chloe poked her head out carefully. Her sunglasses were on her face and she wore a light brown trench coat with a matching hat. Pollen had the same things in her size while she hid in the breast pocket. Chloe adjusts her glasses “there’s our target” she whispers looking at a tent a few feet away. From what was advertised on the outside it was a costume store with very well made designs. On display for all to see was a Paon Bleu costume with some bits altered from the real one, the feathers were shorter and had more purple in them. The mask had a peacock feather sticking out on one side and the nose was more pointed. But that’s because this wasn’t the real Paon Bleu costume, this was the anime Paon Bleu. 

“Looks expensive” Pollen mutters as Chloe creeps towards the tent. Kim looks her way and she jumps behind a tree before he recognized her. 

“They’re anime, of course they’re going to be expensive” Chloe says trying to look casual against the tree. Once the coast is clear she tip toes towards the shop “but I’ll be damned if I let anyone know I wear something that isn’t designer” she hisses ducking behind a trash can. Her eyes widen seeing two girls walking towards the shop “what the hell are they doing here?”

“Shopping?” Pollen suggests moving her sunglasses so her blue eyes peeked out. Marinette and Alya stopped in front of the tent admiring the modal with the Paon outfit.

“Oh Alya these are amazing, but there’s no way I can afford this” Marinette was saying which made Chloe smirk. The girls eventually carried on with their walk and Chloe took the opportunity to slip inside. 

“Dude no” Nino says with a monotone voice. Adrien had found a pair of enormous gloves shaped like cat paws.

“Come on-“Adrien says and makes a claw motion “Nya” Nino just rolls his eyes. Neither notices the blue light coming from a tree and Nathaniel dropping down. 

Nathaniel collapses against the tree and peeks at Duusu hidden in his shirt pocket “what the heck was that?” he gasps rubbing his eyes. The colours had returned to normal but his head was throbbing. 

“What was what?” Luka asks putting his arm on the tree. Nath slap his hands against Duusu in a panic to hide her. 

“Nothing…just got a headache” he squeaks accepting the hand Luka offered him. He was already beginning to sweat from his disguise, a light blue hoodie and the cat eared toque. 

Nino sighs and looks at his phone the second it buzzes “let’s go grab some donuts, Alya and Marinette are waiting there”. He grabs the back of Adrian’s shirt before he could inspect a Naruto themed stand.

 

“I don’t know if I can do it” a small voice in a bright red hoodie squeaks pacing in front of the entrance to the convention. A cell phone pressed to his ear. 

“Listen, Marc you have been talking nonstop about this guy Nathaniel since you became my best bud” his friend stated with a chuckle. 

“But we haven’t really talked face to face in years, I mean sure we made comics together but then I took that exchange program in America and we kind of lost touch” Marc cried earning him a few strange looks from people walking by. 

“Yet you have the biggest crush on him, like me crushing on Adrien Agreste levels of crushing” 

“At least I don’t have posters of him all over my room Wayhem” he pronounces the name with fake poison. 

Wayhem chuckled and there was a sound of a blender in the background, he was on the phone at work again. “You can do this Marc; confess your crush on him. And if he likes you back I’ve got a bucket of happy mills ice cream to celebrate”.

“What if he doesn’t like me back?” Marc can’t help but ask quietly.

“Then its sad mills ice cream and Netflix all night” There’s a sound of shuffling before he speaks again. “Okay I just got a text from one of my spies that he’s at the convention.  
The time is now Marco Polo. Go and win him with your gay booty” he cries likely with a huge grin on his face.

Marc muffles a laugh to avoid drawing attention “why am I friends with you?” 

“Because everyone needs a gay best friend, even the gay ones” Wayhem chirps without missing a beat. Marc sighs and ends the call, with his phone held tightly in his hand he marches into the convention. 

Marc spots Nathaniel immediately, his red hair stood out in the crowd even with the hat. He starts to slow but mentally kicks himself to keep going. He could do this, all he had to do was walk up and…

“OH COME ON I JUST GOT MY DONUT!” Nino screams making everyone look towards him, more importantly towards the big purple smoke cloud. Luka’s face turns to a smirk and he quickly sneaks off and ducks inside an empty a food truck.

The red cloud forms into the akuma of the day. She wore a red evening gown from the 1950s with a similar red wide brimmed hat. Her face was somewhat hidden by a black veil and her red lips crushed in a grouchy frown.

“I will find you my Black raven, the Lady Phoenix will have her revenge” she cries turning her attention to Marinette and Alya grabbing on to one another in fright. “Perhaps destroying you will make him appear” she points her umbrella at them and fires a strange red energy ball. 

Marinette ducks but it wasn’t needed, Raion lands in front of them and slices the ball in half. “Knights of sin fall in line” she gets into a battle stance with the sword as Licorne and Gorm do a front flip and land creating a triangle around the akuma. 

Alya knew she should find a place to transform but this was the perfect scoop. Her phone was out recording the knights while Marinette started to slowly back up to sneak away. 

Phoenix holds up her umbrella and smoke falls out from it, it curls around her body and two yellow eyes appear as it forms into a smoke dragon. “I have not time for villains of this world, Lord Smoke, activate the spell of reality” she orders and before anyone could react the dragon expands and blinds them in its smoke.

When Adrien opens his eyes he’s been transported to somewhere else in the convention, based off the black cat and Ladybug decorations he’s in the miraculous section. So finally he gets to fight side by side with the knights of sin, he was totally going to ask to ride Gorm’s guitar. He’s broken out of his thoughts by a red blur, it grabs him throws him against the wall. He’s about to hit their nose with his head when it clicks who he’s looking at. “Nath you okay?

Nath dropped his arms and looked around anxiously; no one seemed interested in their conversation. “After that light show Luka and Nino disappeared and now I can’t find Duusu anywhere” 

“Okay don’t panic, have you seen Ladybug?” Adrien asks, an awkward pause goes by while hundreds of fans dressed like Ladybug and Chat Noir walk by. Adrian sighs “Let’s get someplace quiet so I can transform” he peeks in his jacket to see the pair of green eyes staring back at him. 

They had only walked for a minute when Nath paused; Adrien followed his gaze to discover a flat screen showcasing the newest episode of the miraculous ladybug anime. A red headed boy was doing ballet in a black room with a singular spotlight, soft piano music played and a voice spoke while he danced ending with a close up off the characters eyes.  
“Is that Paon?” Nath squeaks while the TV moves on to the next scene. 

Adrien muffled a laugh “you haven’t been watching the anime? That’s Blaz the too cool for you anti-hero that’s obsessed with defeating Cat Noir” Nath just looked at him like he was insane. 

“And totally gay for him too” a female voice chirps coming up to them, Adrian gawks in shock at her and Nath swears for a second his face stretched to match the intensity of the emotion. The girl had bright pink hair and was dressed in the sailor schoolgirl uniform; her eyes were almost too large for her head and were an unnatural pink. “They’re like my OPT, there’s such an intense sexual energy when they’re together”. Nathaniel is taken back by the French subtitles appearing underneath her feet after her every word, 

“WHAT, ladybug and Cat Noir complete each other they’re like yin and yang” Adrien fires and the girl focuses her attention on him.

“Cat Noir only wants Ladybug to give him a kiss so he can take the ring off, he doesn’t love her” 

“Oh yeah well in season two he has his chance but doesn’t, he’s slowly falling in love with her”

Nath taps his foot impatiently glancing around for any sign of Lady Phoenix. Adrien for the time being was content with arguing with the fan playfully which did nothing but annoy him. A red cross appeared on his head and throbbed twice as they continued. Finally he’s had enough and pulls Adrian by the back of his shirt. “LadyNoir is end game” Adrien calls back to the girl who just stuck her tongue out at them.

Nino ducks behind a vending machine and Wayzz phases out from his hat. “It feels like we’re having an attack every day now, if this keeps up your education will suffer come September” the turtle hums scratching his chin. 

“No kidding dude. Not to mention ruin our summer” Nino replies peeking out to see if the akuma was in sights. His eyes catch a couple of girls enjoying their new anime style bodies and a red cloud blasting next to them. The girls scream and run as Gorm lands in front of them to send the smoke back with a blast from his guitar. It reforms into the dragon and Gorm pulls a face to get it to chase him. Nino feels a tinge of envy seeing the orca take to the air on his guitar. Gorm pulls an array of tricks to dodge the smoke dragon and the solid obstacles around him. 

“Hey I’m finally getting the hang of this” Gorm says under his breath. Lady Phoenix appears and moves her weapon towards him and Raion leaps into action. She closes her eyes while doing a back flip and time seems to slow down for Gorm. “Whoa…” Gorm breaths only to crash into a pole, he flies off and slides on his face for a good few inches. 

Raion spars with Phoenix doing crazy fancy moves to keep Phoenix on her toes. “The people of this world do not trust you, why do you fight for them?” Phoenix hisses locking the weapons and leaning in close to Raion’s face. 

“Why I fight is none of your concern” Raion growls eyes appearing to flash a bright red for a second.

“I could make them love you” Phoenix purrs letting her free hand crackle with magic, Raion’s face changes to curiosity but she quickly refocuses. With a war cry she slams Phoenix back and twists like a tornado of flame. Phoenix smirks thinking the attack childish but she’s blown back by the power of it and crashes to the ground below.

Phoenix rolls away before Raion could plunge the sword into her chest; she needed to end this before she was sliced to bits. Her eyes fall to Licorne trying to move the crowd back. 

“Please stand back I don’t want anyone getting hurt” Licorne pleads only for someone to actually spit in her face.

“Why should we listen to you? You’re a bad guy” A guy in front snaps with the ugliest accent Licorne had ever heard. His French was so bad the subtitles under his feet gave up and put a question mark instead. 

“It’s for your safety, please step back” Carapace orders stepping beside Licorne and staring the kid in the eye. The boy pouts but does as he’s told; Licorne throws a thankful look to Carapace who nods in understanding.

“Aren’t you cute, but I can make you adorable” the two turn to see Phoenix flying towards them and firing an energy beam. Carapace immediately blocks but the second it hits his  
shield it swallows him in a light and he vanishes. Phoenix fires again at Licorne who screams and covers her eyes.

“Licorne, look out!” Licorne is suddenly pushed out of the way by Raion taking the shot for her. Raion too is enveloped and disappears. 

Licorne falls to her knees where Raion once stood, Phoenix lands in front of her to gloat. “Oh sweetheart if only you weren’t so useless, your team may have stood a chance” she bends into the grass and picks up a tiny Carapace. “Chibi I believe they’re called, much easier to deal with” she winds him up then throws him off into the distance. She laughs and flies off while Licorne finds a tiny Raion in the grass and dusts the dirt off her head. 

Marinette ducked behind a fortune telling booth and let Tikki free from her bag, “okay, the people talking have subtitles, I lost Alya in the crowd, and my hair now is literally blue”. Tikki nodded eyes falling to the giant locket against Marinette’s chest. 

“Let’s not worry about that, we need to transform and defeat this evil, Alya can’t be far” Marinette nods and gives her cry of “spots on” but nothing happens. Her hands grab the locket and she glares at it thinking hard, a manga underneath Marinette’s feet lights the bulb.

“Not only are anime clichés appearing everywhere but we’re a type of anime now, I know what to do” Marinette puts her hands over her chest and flicks her fingers in an unlocking motion “my heart unlock” she cries and Tikki gasps as her body is swallowed in a bright red light. Suddenly a red and black spotted egg snaps over Tikki’s body and Marinette holds it and places it where her heart should be. When the light fades Ladybug stands and uses her yo-yo to swoop over the crowds on the hunt for the akuma. 

“This is so cool, best convention ever” Adrien chirps while several girls with outrageous coloured hair run by. Nathanial doesn’t share his excitement and drags him into the nearest men’s washroom, once it was checked that the coast was clear Adrien opens his jacket to allow Plagg out. Neither expects to see a normal sized black cat fall out and glare back up at them, a crescent moon on his forehead. “Plagg is that you?”

“Who do you think it would be” Plagg hisses licking his front paw and using it to wipe his face, Adrien stares at him a second than his eyes have stars for a second.

“You look like the cats in sailor moon, oh no way am I a sailor scout?” he asks no in particular, Plagg just shrugs and bumps Nathaniel’s pocket. He pulls out a large yellow tear shaped item with his mouth. Nath bends down to take it from the cat and runs a finger down the peacock feather pattern; did the akuma turn Duusu into a pendent?

“I got to try this, Plagg moon prism power MAKE UP” Adrien thrusts his ringed hand into the air and black nail polish appears on his nails. Nath just stands there absolutely stunned as bubbles appear in the background, Adrien’s body gets swallowed by pink and purple lights and Plagg vanishes into a light on Adrian’s ring. When the transformation ends Chat Noir appears with the most gleeful expression. His costume had an added crown to it like the one Sailor Moon would wear. Nath manages to close his mouth while Chat pounces over and looks at the item in Nath’s hands. “I recognise that, it’s one of those pendent thingies from Tokyo Mew, Mew” Chat says forgetting what personal space was as he squishes against Nath in an excited glee. 

“I never watched that, how do these work?” Nath says and Chat gasps overdramatically.

“How could you have not watched it? It’s a classic” Chat says with his tail sticking straight up in horror. He gains a determined smirk and moves his hands like a cat playing with a toy. 

“Mew, mew style, Mew, mew grace, being a cat, I find that cute”

Nath hears a drooping sound effect by his ear and looks to see a tear shaped sweat dropped had appeared to match his mood. He puts his hands together in a praying motion “Chat I will watch every episode and read every manga if you promise to never to do that again”.

Chat looks rather pleased making Nath question if that was the right thing to say, “Okay so all you have to do is kiss it and say mew, mew strawberry metamorphose” 

Nath bites his lip and looks back at the pendent “Chat I don’t think that will work, you’re more the cat guy here”. 

Chat scratches his chin then snaps his fingers “that’s cause you’re the bird girl, your transformation is Mint’s” he pulls up a video using his baton phone to show him. Then he sits down on the floor to watch. 

Nath forces his body to relax and gets into position. He kisses the object gently and feels the phrase come to his mind “mew, mew mint, metamorphoses”. His body moves gracefully on its own, preforming a dance that cloaks his body in a blue light. Chat claps his hands once he’s finished, the costume is the same other than the tear pedant around his neck like a choker. Paon blushes slightly under his mask, a rattling brings the boys attention to an air vent. The metal clicks and falls off, a tiny man dressed as a turtle stumbles out and coughs from the dust. “Carapace…?” Chat grabs the turtle by the hood and hoists him up to eye level, Carapace wiggles in his grip than wilts since it was pointless to struggle.

“Yes it’s me, I came across the akuma and she turned me…chibi I think she said” Carapace says and mutters a thank you when Chat puts him on his shoulder. 

“Show us where to go little dude” Chat chirps running out of the bathroom, Paon at his heels.

“Chloe please come out, we have to go” Pollen calls from outside the change room stall. Chloe had gone in to try on the Paon costume and then kicked Pollen out without explanation. Without another person in sight Pollen had waited on a small pillow but there was too many screams outside.

“Go on without me, I can’t be seen like this” Chloe cries from the other side. 

“You know I can’t do that” Pollen sighs and phases though the stall “now come on it can’t be that-“  
Pollen stops dead in her tracks, Chloe looks up at her in shame while Pollen tried to find her voice. Finally after crashing and rebooting Pollen blurts out “BOOBIES!”

“They’re horrible aren’t they” Chloe wails trying to hide the now double D breasts attached to her chest. The movement makes them bounce awkwardly as if they were made of jello instead of fat. 

“Maybe the transformation will get rid of them” Pollen hums flying down and poking one of them. Entranced by the movement she pokes them again despite Chloe’s objections. To Chloe’s horror there’s a small car honking sound when the nub presses the boob. 

“Oh why me” Chloe whines trying to hide them under her shirt but the fabric is no match for them. She glares at Pollen and swats her away before she could poke them again, “Pollen stingers out” she cries sucking her into the comb in her ponytail.

“Trixx, stop laughing” Alya orders trying to contain her own double D breasts. They were in the bathroom after her boobs suddenly began to grow. Her kwami was in tears laughing as she tried to shove the boobs into her very torn shirt, a car honk sound effect after each shove. 

“I’m sorry it’s just” Trixx manages to say in between giggles and landed on her boobs. “You’re a human trampoline” he cries jumping up and down on them then moving before she could grab him. “And you’ve got the base to match, nice tail by the way” he chirps then breaks down into giggles again.

Alya slowly turns to face a furry fox tail sprouting out from her lower back, it waved hello then rested on her large rump. “We have to fix this” Alya cries moving her breasts to free the miraculous crushed between them “Trixx let’s pounce”.

Ladybug sighs and puts her yo-yo away, another akuma that could mess with phone communications. She scanned the crowd below her and hums in suspicion she had been moving though this convention for some time and the exit was nowhere in sight. Had Phoenix made everything part of the anime convention? She jumps down into the crowd and makes a sound of surprise finding most of the people had undetailed faces and were frozen in place; poor guys had become background characters of an anime. She takes on a jog trying to find her way back to the food stands. She turns a corner and smacks into someone wearing a red hoodie.

Ladybug rubs her head then gasps “Marc, when did you come back to Paris?” 

Marc yelps and jumps to his feet, his character modal stretching funny as anime characters tend to do when moving fast. “Just today…I wonder who was upset enough to cause this” he paused looking over at one person whose face hadn’t been drawn. “With how today has been going I thought there was going to be a return of the Reverser” he added quietly tightening his grip on the journal in his hand. 

Ladybug opens her mouth to ask what was wrong but thinks better of it. That was something to do as Marinette. Instead she grabs the timid boys hand and continues her sprint with him in tow “come on we need to find the others”.

“Why do I need to come?” Marc cries nearly tripping over his feet trying to keep up. 

“You didn’t become a background character, you must be important” Ladybug explains throwing her yo-yo onto something and swinging them both into the sky. 

“Why don’t you give up, I’ll turn you into a nice squeaky toy for Smoke” Phoenix taunts firing rapidly at Licorne and Gorm. The two were dodging the fire like chickens with their heads cut off. Licorne passes Raion to Gorm in order to do a several cartwheels and pluck the horn off her head. Gorm ducks under Smoke and Raion clings to Gorm for dear life.  
From behind an overturned truck Paon grabs Chat’s shoulder before he could charge out “Chat that isn’t just any akuma, that’s the main villain from the two birds one dance series”.

“What you want an autograph?” Chat deadpans glancing around the truck to watch the battle going on. 

“No” Paon snaps louder than he meant to, luckily he isn’t heard. “What I’m trying to say is something isn’t right here, how did a fictional character make it into this world?”

Chat scratches his chin than shrugs. “Well I’m going to try the good old annoy akuma until Ladybug shows up plan” he announces pouncing on top of the truck. Paon sighs and follows after him.

“No Licorne you need to block, block, jab. Not block, scream, and run. Have some dignity” Raion cries in the most adorable squeaky voice. Had Licorne not been occupied trying not to get stabbed she would have squealed in delight. Phoenix laughs evilly as she sweeps Licorne’s leg and kicks her into a truck. Licorne slides down it with a groan while Phoenix picks up the dropped horn and moves to stab her with it. 

“Hold it right there” Chat cries from above them, Phoenix glares at the trio. Paon had one hand on his hip, Carapace on his shoulder leaning against his neck trying to look cool. “Attacking a junior hero with her own weapon is unforgivable, A sailor suited scout of love and justice. Sailor Chat” Chat moves his arms in the classic Sailor Moon pose. “In the name of the moon, we will punish you” he ends causing an array of sparkles to spawn around him. 

“Chat you useless weeb” Carapace moans as Paon brings a fan up to hide his face in shame. He hits one of the sparkles away as he does so.

“This is so awesome” Gorm squeaks forgetting Smoke was still on his tail. The dragon knocks him to the ground in yet another face plant. 

Chat and Paon do a front flip and do another pose somewhat accidentally “Gorm go and find Ladybug, we’ll hold them off” Paon orders looking at him out of the corner of his eyes. Gorm nods and takes off into the sky. Smoke tries to give chase but is blown back by Chat and Paon using their weapons to create a wind. 

Paon shoots towards Phoenix while Chat continued to spin his baton to keep Smoke down. Paon gasped as the strange colours filled his vision again, Phoenix was the only thing not with blinding colours. But her features had vanished leaving her looking like a shadow. The shadow moves and a shock wave fires towards them, Paon’s head is too busy trying to find a word for the colour to dodge. Carapace screams as he’s flown off Paon’s shoulder and into something brown and squishy. Paon vision returns to normal right before he gets a face full of warm yellow squish. 

“Oh please tell me I’m not” Paon’s muffled voice says pushing with one hand to free his face. He opens his eyes to see Bee’s less than impressed face…and his hand still on one fatty melon “eh heh…hi Boo-bees, I mean Bee!” 

Bee doesn’t change expression as she less then gently grabs Paon’s hand and removes it from her boob. 

“I see you’re in a similar situation” Rena deadpans looking over at Bee’s new assets. She digs into her own hearing muffled screaming and pulls out Carapace who was as white as a ghost. 

“Was that heaven or hell? I couldn’t tell” he mumbles eyes turning into swirls then he faints

“The fan service characters appear before Black Raven, this world is unacceptable” Phoenix shouts with her eyes turning white and her mouth shooting out tiny spits of flame. 

Licorne’s face burns red and steam rises from her head. “Oh be still my bisexual heart” she sings falling backwards and Chat catching her before she hit the ground.

“You’re going to pay for doing this to my girls” Bee snaps pulling her dipper out from between her boobs (because where else would you put it?). With a war cry she flies towards Phoenix preparing a strike, causing her breasts to bang together from the wind painfully. She swings wildly at Phoenix and smashes her face in, Phoenix groans and turns into ash.

“That’s it?” Paon squeaks as Bee tries to pose only to wince as her back throbbed in pain. 

“Hey sometimes reckless violence saves the day” Chat chirped as Smoke disappears along with his master. 

“I hope Ladybug can fix this” Rena mutters ears drooping low and tail wrapping around her torso. 

The group doesn’t have a chance to celebrate with a fist bump as they’re surrounded by a white smoke. “Nice try but the Phoenix will rise again” not one but four Phoenix’s appear surrounding the hero’s. 

“Oh come on” Bee cries moving back to back with the rest of the group. 

Chrysalid watched butters the butterfly land in her hands excitedly. The news of the akuma attack had interrupted her date with Rose but thankfully Rose had announced she had promised to cover someone’s shift. She closed her eyes and focused her power on the energy of the person; Nooroo was right when he said that negative emotions were easier to sense. She could feel his anxiety and fear as if she was right beside him. Finding people who wanted to become champions wasn’t as easy as finding akuma victims. But maybe she could convince them to take the stand; she took a deep breath and watched the powered butterfly take off. 

After a moment the communications started “Hello, I’m Chrysalid. You may have heard of me I would like to-“.

“You’re Hawk moth’s apprentice, there’s no way I’m accepting your deal” T.A snaps throwing the tablet pen and smashing it under his foot. Chrysalid yelps feeling something like a static zap as her butterfly flees the man now throwing his shoe at it. 

Chrysalid hears Butters whine in shame and swallows her own feelings. “Butters find Ladybug, maybe she can find someone” she orders earning a few squeaks of concern. Butters had lost his power giving magic after being rejected; Chrysalid holds up her staff but can’t draw enough magic to power another butterfly. She blinks tears of frustration down, she had one job and she couldn’t do it.

“Hey you’re one of Chrysalid’s butterflies aren’t you” Ladybug’s voice makes Chrysalid jump. On Ladybug’s end she has Butters on her finger while Marc just stares confused. 

“I’m sorry Ladybug, I tried to make a champion and it didn’t work” 

Marc jumps back in fear at the butterfly mask that flashed over Ladybug’s face, oh god they were doomed. But the butterfly was still there, not infused with her like an akuma. 

Ladybug listens quietly to Chrysalid babble about what happened and picks up on how she sensed his emotions “Chrysalid, any chance you know why he was feeling like that?” Ladybug knew from akuma victims that Hawk moth knew exactly why they were upset; maybe they could use that to their advantage.

“His tablet came to life and started drawing his manga for him…okay that does sound weird now that I think about it” Chrysalid bites her lip thinking. “I was going to give him the power to write his story but…you know” she added after a pause.

“That’s it” Ladybug cries turning to Marc with a huge grin “Marc you still write fanfiction?” 

“Uh yea” Marc squeaks glancing nervously at the butterfly “what are you thinking?” 

“I’m thinking we are finding that tablet and you are finishing this story” Ladybug says confidently. She literally runs two steps than spots a tablet floating in the air with a spooky red cloud surrounding it “Bingo”. 

There’s a whooshing sound above them and Marc mouths his disbelief as a boy riding a guitar lands beside them. “Gorm am I ever glad to see you, can you give Marc a lift to that spooky looking tablet over there?” Ladybug says as if this was completely normal.

“You’re glad to see me?” Gorm squeaks and Raion knocks his hood off to reveal herself on top of his head. She says nothing but there’s irritation and dare I say jealousy on her puffy chibi cheeks.

Marc is speechless as he’s helped onto the guitar next to the fish man, Paris had gotten even weirder since he’s left and he didn’t think that was possible until now. Gorm approaches the tablet and Marc carefully reaches for it. The tablet makes a buzzing sound than shoots away from them. “Hold on” Gorm orders taking off after it nearly making Marc fall off. 

Meanwhile back with the others Rena holds Carapace’s hoodie in her teeth as she dodged fire from the Phoenix’s. “Okay guys we seriously need a better plan here” she mumbles crashing into Licorne nearly causing her to faint. 

“We’re trying our breast, I mean best” Chat cries sweating slightly from keeping his eyes glued to her forehead. 

“You are un-bee- lievable” Bee snaps turning away from her battle with another Lord Smoke at just the wrong time. The dragon attacks with its fangs and Bee lets out what was supposed to be a cry of pain. But thanks to anime logic it sounds more….uh

Licorne falls back with a massive nose bleed while Paon crashes into a tree. Ladybug running up to them is a relief for everyone, without stopping she points at Gorm chasing the possessed tablet “guys we need to catch that tablet”. Chat nods and jumps after it, he uses a popcorn machine to get some height and his claws spring out to grab it.

“Not today kitty cat” Phoenix snaps attacking him with her Chibi beam, Ladybug catches the tiny cat and dodges the beam sent at her. The four Phoenix’s raise their weapons and start waving them clockwise the smoke’s twirl above them creating a giant cloud of black smoke. “You will never find it” they cry blanketing the convention in the thick smoke.  
Gorm’s vision goes dark and he crashes into yet another sign. He manages to grab on to Marc and they crash land into a bush. Ladybug coughs and falls to the ground covering her mouth. 

Paon takes off into the air keeping his eyes open for the tablet. The smoke burns his eyes but he forces them to stay open. He lands on top of a telephone pole trying to find it, frustration seeping in when he tries to clear the smoke with his fans with no luck. He coughs and launches up as high as he could go. He gasps for breath once the cooler non smoky air was reached. 

The rain from the morning had started to come back for a second round. Paon glides over the smoke ignoring the drops hitting the back of his neck. Almost in a flash the crazy vision happens again, but this time he knows what it’s for. Or at least a rough idea, the objects inside the smoke became clear and he spotted the tablet darting around costume displays. The tablet seemed to glow red making it impossible to hide from him. He grabs hold of it and yelps as an inhuman screech comes from it, he gets a glimpse of a face escaping the device. It was skin and bones with long strands of gray hair clinging to its scalp. Than just as suddenly it vanishes, Paon lands on his feet in front of Marc and Gorm. 

Paon smiles sheepishly at his old comic partner “you write I’ll draw?” he offers handing the tablet to Marc.

 

“Miraculous Ladybug” 

Bee and Rena both give a sigh of relief with their bodies back to normal proportions. Gorm yelps as Raion turns back to normal size and crushes him. He then chuckles and accepts the hand Ladybug offered him. 

“Mr. T.A?” the artist stops his packing up of dozens of fan papers to see Marc holding up his tablet. Paon stood beside him with a rather proud smile on his face. T.A takes the tablet and opens it to see a gorgeous cover of a comic. It had Lady Phoenix posing with Lord Smoke both with evil grins. Below them were Black Raven and his partner White Crane looking determined to stop her. The name of the comic was “Spell of reality”. “I took what you had already written and expanded on it to finish the comic, I’m sorry if it wasn’t what you were planning on-“Marc rambled as T.A scrolled though the pages.

“This is awesome” T.A interrupts looking back up at the boys “you boys have some real talent”. Marc makes a cute happy sound as T.A goes through the rest of the comic with similar praises. Some advice here and there of course but it was incredible. Paon had his fan against his lips bashfully when T.A points out how well done the eyes and fight scenes looked. 

They wave off T.A as he leaves in a taxi Paon puts a hand on Marc’s shoulder “we make a pretty good team” he smirks and flips both fans out. Paon chirps out a goodbye and launches off into the city leaving Marc with his face as red as Paon’s hair. 

Ladybug gulped as Raion drew her sword at her throat “you have some nerve to make such a demand” Raion hisses pushing the sword closer. Chat steps in with his baton and the two enter a glaring contest while everyone else looks uncomfortable. 

“Raion, I just want to keep Paris safe. I need to make sure your miraculous’s aren’t corrupted” Ladybug says gently. “I promise to return them afterwards and I didn’t ask for you to give up your identity” she continues taking a step forward.

“LIES” Raion snaps making Ladybug jumps and Chat push against the sword trying to knock Raion off balance. “I will not allow you to kill another sin, Paris savior or not you will not touch any of our miraculous’s” she continues eyes flashing with flame. 

“Ladybug hasn’t killed anyone” Rena and Bee argue readying their weapons for a fight. Gorm and Licorne flinch knowing full well that was a fight they wouldn’t win. 

“Then where is Envy? The snake of the knights of sin” Raion hissed not backing down. 

Ladybug stands eyes wide and mouth open, her mind flashing to the battle above Paris with Nathaniel. When he was possessed by a demon and wearing the snake choker Shu gave her. Her mouth felt dry as her mind tried to figure out what happened to it, Nathaniel reformed but she never recovered the necklace because of everything else that had happened. Gorm puts a hand on Raion’s shoulder and it seems to calm the lioness down with a literal hiss of water steaming. “I understand your concern Ladybug but I agree with Raion. I think it’s best we work apart until you can provide the answers to our missing knight” with that Licorne and Raion pounce off into the rooftops. Gorm puts his hood on nearly making his face invisible and then flies off after his team. 

Ladybug hears her earrings beep in warning and gives a big sigh, she was in for a long night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I used the anime's Shugo Clara, Sailor moon and Mew Mew power. I couldn't think of any other magical transformation anime's for the rest of the team.  
> We got a glimpse at the main bad guy, and I have decided I need to go back to previous chapters and edit a few things now that I know what I'm working towards. I have an actual ending planed instead of just a list of puns I want to use at some point.


	9. Nightmares

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I was real mad about the Queen Bee trilogy, I mean it makes sense for the show but Chloe and her mom bonding over being awful people left me with such a bad taste in my mouth.  
> Also I still haven't stopped screaming after watching Catalyst. I am too emotionally attached to this show for my own good.

Chapter nine nightmares 

Nooroo woke up to moonlight peering in the boat house, he always felt a little safer seeing the symbol of the night. Even when under Gabriel’s rule he would find a way to watch the nights go by though the window. He flew out from his little bed and went to fly out the window, just to get a little closer to it for a little while. He’s shocked when an invisible wall blocks him from leaving the window “you didn’t think you could escape did you?” Nooroo gasps hearing Gabriel’s voice, he turns and puts his nubs over his mouth whimpering. Juleka was sitting on the bed with Gabriel’s face instead of her own, “YOU BELONG TO ME!”

Nooroo woke up with a squeal and took a few deep breaths studying the room. It was early morning and he could hear Juleka in the shower singing softly. He wasn’t with Gabriel anymore, Nooroo leaned back to steady his tiny heart. 

A few minutes later Juleka comes out wearing her purple bathrobe and her hair tied up in a purple towel. “Nooroo are you okay?” she asks picking him up seeing how his face was still rather pale. Her concerned frown deepens “you had another nightmare didn’t you” Nooroo hugged himself and nodded. Juleka sat on the bed and held him close to her chest “I’m so sorry Nooroo” she whispers thinking back to the past few days. Each butterfly Chrysalid sent was rejected by the people, their words becoming crueler as they gained the confidence to expel their frustrations at Hawk moth. As result Chrysalid wasn’t joining the team meetings, wasn’t asking to go on patrols. 

And Nooroo was terrified she was going to give him up.

Kagami carefully moved though her home, the house should be empty at this part of the day. Her parents starting lessons for the younger classes or doing office work. But her ears picked up on the sound of lips smacking and crunching She made her way to the kitchen and threw open the cupboard, finding Purrde on the other side mouth full of crackers. Purrde gulped the crackers down and to Kagami’s astonishment cowers behind a bag of rice. “Purrde what’s wrong?” she softly asks reaching in and pulling the kwami out by the fat of her neck.

Purrde wiped the crumbs off her mouth quickly “I only ate a little bit, no one was eating them and they were stale and-“ 

“Purrde” Kagami starts to quiet the fearful rambling. “If you were hungry you only had to ask, I recall Licorne and Gorm telling me their Kwami had quite the appetites” Kagami says opening the fridge and taking out a carton of eggs. 

Purrde didn’t reply lost in a memory, when she was caught eating a piece of bread that was slightly molded. 

“You filthy Kwami” her old wielder snapped ripping the bread from her paws “I haven’t eaten in days and you steal precious food”. 

“I’m hungry too” Purrde whimpered only for the man to knock her down into a mud puddle.

“You are an immortal being, you don’t have to eat to live” he shoved what was left of the bread in his mouth and stomped away. Purrde wiped the mud off her face and held back her tears. She had to be strong for the others, even if her stomach cried out she would not. 

“Purrde” Kagami repeated bringing Purrde back to reality “your old wielder fed you didn’t he?” 

Purrde tried not to drool at the smell of the eggs cooking in the frying pan, the rice cooker bubbling off to the side. “I don’t ask for food, I don’t want to be a burden on my wielders” she says at last. 

Kagami frowns and rubs Purrde’s head gently “you are not a burden to me Purrde; I have more than enough food to share”.

“It’s no problem really” Purrde argues as Kagami begins the next steps of breakfast. She puts the cooked rice in a round mold and cuts the omelette into pieces.  
Kagami finishes and frowns, the rice balls looked delicious slightly seasoned with salt and held together by dried seaweed. “Oh it looks like I made too much for myself; I wouldn’t want all this to go to waste” she says looking to Purrde with a mischievous look in her eyes. Purrde’s stomach gives a loud wail before she could answer; Kagami laughs and sets the table up for the two of them. Her usual spot and a doll pillow and table for Purrde. Purrde finally gives in and shoves some of the delicious rice into her mouth. Kagami makes a mental note to put some extra rice balls in her pocket for later. 

Meanwhile Marinette was in her room carrying a pile of pillows and blankets, her foot slips on the edge of one blanket and she flies forward. Her grunt of surprise was muffled by the pillows. Tikki giggled and pulled the small pink one off her head, “there’s no need to rush Marinette. The girls won’t be here until the evening”. 

“I know Tikki but I want it to be perfect, this is the first slumber party I’ve ever thrown” Marinette replied collecting the blankets and getting to work on turning her room into the perfect slumber party paradise. Fluffy blankets and air mattresses coated the floor, a table was set up for snacks, and pillows were gathered in front of the laptop to use for movies. 

While Marinette looks over her multiple pajama sets Tikki nibbles on a cookie in thought “do you think we’ll hear from Mme Blutmond today?” 

Marinette paused on folding away the rejections “I don’t know, we sent her that mosquito a while ago”. With Master Fu’s whereabouts unknown Marionette had turned to the one other magical person she knew. Although Oma was a master of magic their Skype call was Marinette staring at Oma’s ear for the majority of it, the grandma was clearly not a technical genius. “I wouldn’t be surprised if she sends us a letter by pigeon” she jokes not noticing the hairy legs crawling through the window.

“I resent that” 

Marinette and Tikki jumped at the newcomer’s voice. Marinette turns to see a girl about eight years of age siting on her bed like she owned it, she had four pigtails with purple streaks in them. She wore a black shirt with a spider web on the front as well as a black skirt with striped purple and black tights. In one hand she held a letter stamped shut with red wax. Marinette quickly grabbed Tikki to hide her but the girl simply laughs “relax pigtails I ain’t telling anyone”.

Tikki phases out of Marinette’s grip and into the girls face “you’re a familiar” she announces after a moment. 

The girl smirks and hands Tikki the letter “I sure am, the names Charlotte. I’m Oma’s outside help” she looks over to Marinette and her purple eyes suddenly shift into four eyes like on spiders. Marinette screams and throws a pillow at her.

“Marinette you should read this” Tikki says handing her the letter. Marinette looks away from Charlotte who was laughing hysterically and reads Oma’s messy handwriting. 

“The mosquito was filled with demons blood?” She reads aloud shutting up Charlotte and making her flinch. 

“That means we have to be real careful that none of the mosquitoes bite us, even a tiny bit of demons blood can change a person” Tikki stated trying to remember if Marinette had some bug spray on hand. 

Marinette keeps reading “attached to this is some lemon grass, use it to repel them from your room”. She looks all over the letter but doesn’t find the grass, she looks up to Charlotte who stared blankly at her.

A light bulb went off in Charlotte’s head “oh right “she opens her bag and hands Marinette a bag of grass and a book wrapped in newspaper. “Chinese Santa wanted me to give that to you” she says pointing to the book.  
“Good luck not dying” Charlotte chirped and before Marionette’s eyes shifted into a giant spider. As large as the journal in her hands, the spider gives a wave with one leg as she shoots a web out the window. Marionette starts doing the “oh god is there a spider on me” dance even as Charlotte disappears into the Paris streets. 

Marinette got a grip and tore open the paper, nearly dropping the book inside in shock. “This is the miraculous spell book” she cries tearing the rest of the paper off to reveal that indeed it was the spell book Master Fu had lost for a long time. Tikki sits away from her since she wasn’t allowed to look inside while Marinette reads a note attached to the first page in silence. “He’s translated more of the spells” she announces at last “there’s ones for Chat and I, and there’s even some for Rena and the others”.

“You should look though those spells, I’ll find some bug repellent candles for tonight” Tikki says already flying towards the exit. Marinette nods and sits down on the floor to begin reading.

She stops at the page that held the table of contents for the special spells that could only be used by one holder. “As time passes with a miraculous the wielder will bond with the kwami and gain access to special powers. Although these powers are useful it is advised a kwami does not get to bond with its wielder as side effects can be troublesome”. 

Marionette put the book down confused, “Tikki what’s bonding?” she asks as the red kwami flies back into the room candle in her nubs. 

Meanwhile Trixx licks at a lollipop and watches Alya edit a thing for the lady blog. In between edits she would switch back to Lila’s blog to stare at the increasing popularity and read the comments. Lila had taken a real liking to Avvina, the vulture themed “hero” and the blog had blown up over an interview with her. Lila claimed that she couldn’t go into detail but she knew where the mosquitoes were coming from and was working with Avvina on a plan to stop them. Honestly Trixx thought she was checking that blog way too often, who cares if it was popular? He’s almost about to fall asleep out of boredom when an orange glow catches his eye. His paw was glowing softly, Trixx stared fascinated then spies it also coming from Alya. He realizes what’s happening and his ears curl like devil horns. He hears footsteps and hides behind a pillow. Right on cue Nino walks in holding the coffee Alya had asked him to bring. In a heartbeat Alya jumps three feet in the air, plants her feet on the arm rests of the chair and lets out a huge animalistic scream. Nino screams in return and falls on his butt spilling the coffee. Trixx has to jam the pillow against his mouth to muffle the giggles.

 

Lila sits down on her bed with a phone pressed to her ear “I have a date with Adrien tonight at the fanciest restaurant in town so I won’t be coming to dinner. Okay thank you Daddy” she says cheerfully then hangs up. Tutti flies down with a piece of sausage in his beak as Lila pulls out a huge bowl of cheese popcorn and a plate of cookies. 

“You’re really good at lying on the spot” Tutti says swallowing his food in one gulp. 

“Why thank you Tutti” Lila chirps clicking on the TV and browsing Netflix.

“Wasn’t a compliment” Lila ignores him and takes a sip of lemonade. “Don’t you think it’s a little rude to leave your dad hanging like that? He seemed really excited to spend time with you”.

“I know but Daddy can be so annoying, after a stressful day I need to relax” Lila groans putting a hand to her forehead like she had a headache. 

Tutti frowned “I’ve been with you all day and the only thing you’ve done is talk to yourself and brag about Avvina”.

“Yeah you know how much work I put into that interview, plus all that editing. Tutti you seriously need to chill, here-“she clicked on a dumb teen drama. “-tonight we binge watch”.

“Really we should be out there with the other knights”

Lila blew a raspberry “please like we should bother with those losers, I’m already the best super hero in Paris”.

Tutti growled slightly, how was he drawn to this spoiled brat? “How can you call yourself a superhero when you haven’t even saved anyone?” he snaps flying in front of her face making her jump back. 

“Alright fine sheesh” Lila pauses her show and takes a long sip of her drink. “We’ll head out tomorrow and patrol for a few hours. Happy?” 

“Delighted” Tutti replies with equal sarcasm.

Hours later Marinette greets her guests as they come in ready for slumber party fun. Alya was first eager to help with the final touches to the frosted sugar cookies for the night. She was already in her pajamas with a pillow tucked under her arm and a backpack full of snacks and other stuff. Alix was next wearing her bright green pajamas with a snake scale pattern around the legs and arms. Juleka and Rose showed up at the same time wearing matching purple pajamas with dotted slipper socks. Mylene was last with a popcorn bag that was as big as she was. Her pajamas were black with a silly monster face on the chest. 

Pizza is ordered; the girls get into groups and begin the madness. Hairbrushes in hand Marinette and Alya jump on the bed lip-syncing to their favorites song. It’s so adorable everyone in a ten mile radius is getting diabetes. 

After stuffing themselves with pizza Rose suggests they begin the “spa day” staple of any slumber party. Alix turns her nose up but gives in to Mylene painting her nails at least. The girls use hairbands to keep their hair out of the face mask they slathered on. A cool cucumber and lemon mask that was bright blue in colour. Up until then all they talked about was meaningless things, but then Alix brings up her time as Ace and the conversation shifts.

“What do you guys think of Chrysalid? Is she legit or is she planning something?” Alya asks pausing on painting Marionette’s nails.

“I think she’s really trying to repair the damage Hawk moth has done” Mylene is first to speak eyeing her bright green nails.

“I agree, I mean she gave me the chance to totally kick bad guy butt” Alix chimes in striking a pose she did as Ace. 

“But what about Max, she didn’t just akumantize him. She super-akumantized him” Rose said not noticing the slight cringe from her girlfriend.

“And she’s not showing up to the superhero meetings, maybe she has ulterior motives in mind” Alya threw out journalist brain clicking away with thoughts. 

“Maybe she’s just scared…” Juleka mutters looking up and jumping seeing all eyes on her. “Wouldn’t you be? To be just given the power of Hawk moth out of the blue and trying to gain the trust of all of Paris when they’d rather berate you” she stops herself there not only to avoid spilling too much. But also because she felt Nooroo curl himself into a ball in her pouch pocket, she needed to sneak away to apologise. 

“It would be a big responsibility” Marinette starts taking a moment to look each girl in the eye. “The butterfly miraculous would be hard to master, it’s not as easy as swinging around a yo-yo or making cat puns. Ladybug was trusted to give it to someone she believed was best-“

“Wait” Alya cut her off jumping into her personal space with a huge grin “Ladybug gave you the miraculous didn’t she?” 

“What-uh no” Marinette squeaked but it was too late to change Alya’s mind. Marinette considered her options knowing the best way to get Alya off her scent was to make her think she was right. “She did offer the miraculous to me but I couldn’t take it” Marinette said hoping it would keep them off her real identity. 

Alya and the rest of the girls gasp in shock “why wouldn’t you take it? You’re totally superhero material” Alya stated making her nearly dried mask start to crack. 

“I’m not superhero material I'm way too clumsy and disorganized” Marinette argued crossing her legs and giving a big sigh. To the girls it sounded sad but to Marinette it was relief.

“So Ladybug gave it to someone else” Juleka mutters and thinks back to finding the box in her bag. Ladybug didn’t give it to her personally, what if she was a mistake? She didn’t look like the kind of person to see the best in people and she was nothing compared to Marinette’s energy. Marinette was friends with everyone and could even make Chloe do the right thing sometimes. Juleka picked at her fresh purple nail polish as the doom and gloom thoughts continued. 

“It would be awkward to take Adrien’s fathers miraculous” Rose says trying to lighten the mood. Alix and Mylene join in on the joking while Juleka excuses herself to the bathroom to wash her mask off. 

Marinette joins in on the giggling but her mind is elsewhere. She had to have given the miraculous to one of these girls, but which one? The light bulb flashes and there’s a spark of magic from the bathroom, Nooroo’s spark. Marionette’s mind whirrs with a plan to help the new hero. 

The next night Juleka is folding her laundry when Ladybug flies though her window and lands with a pose. Ladybug turns to her with a gentle smile “how’s Nooroo doing?” 

Juleka gasps and one hand covers her bracelet, “he’s uh…”

“I’m alright Ladybug, thank you for finding me a chosen with such a fantastic fashion sense” Nooroo says shooting out from the bathroom. Ladybug giggles at the kwami’s new look, he had a fake black gem on his forehead and red eyeliner on his wings in pretty swirls. 

“We were just playing around” Juleka squeaks as Nooroo spins around to show off the glitter on his back. 

“Juleka” Ladybug started softly, Juleka pales and looks to the floor. “Why haven’t you been joining us for meetups?” 

“I’m sorry” Juleka whimpers “I’ve been a terrible super hero, I understand if you’ve come to take Nooroo back”. 

“No, no” Ladybug cries shaking her head frantically. “I understand that taking on Nooroo’s powers can be hard, especially with how cruel some people can be” she puts a hand on Juleka’s shoulder. “Perhaps it was wrong to drop it on you out of the blue, if it’s too much I’ll find him a new wielder” Ladybug holds out her hand. 

Juleka stares at Ladybug’s hand, then at her own miraculous, then Nooroo. Maybe Ladybug could find him someone who could help him better, someone who was better at finding the good in people. Nooroo flew over to her hand and stared into her eyes. Juleka used her free hand to gently pet the top of his head. This was more about Nooroo then it was the power. By giving up being a super hero she would give up him. She moves him against her chest and feels him give a big sigh; she couldn’t give up on him.

“Can I hold onto him for just a little longer” she mutters just loud enough for them to hear.

Ladybug nods and steps back “Chrysalid I would like you to join me for patrol tonight” 

Juleka took a step back surprised but then softly nods “Nooroo wings flutter”. Ladybug bites the inside of her cheek as Juleka preforms her transformation sequence, she was so freaking adorable. As she poses her body lights up a white light then breaks off into hundreds of white butterflies. Ladybug has a childlike glee on her face as one land on her outstretched finger. 

“There are more of them this time” Chrysalid gasps seeing them covering nearly every surface in the bedroom. Their wings flap loudly as they scramble for the comfy bed or curtains. 

“Word must have spread about the fabulous Chrysalid” Ladybug chirps as dozens try to land on Chrysalid’s braid. 

Chrysalid smiles shyly “I wish the Parisians loved me like that, trusted me like they do you”.

“Love is something that has to be earned, you can do this Chrysalid” Ladybug says ushering her to the window. She texted something on her yo-yo and Chrysalid glances at her miraculous that lit up with a message. “I’ve given you some streets I’d like you to take on your own, meet you at the Eiffel tower”. 

Chrysalid gulps but with the assistance of her butterflies she flies out leaving a small trail of lavender pixie dust. Ladybug is about to follow her when a cloud of red slips out from behind the curtain. Ladybug opens her mouth to scream but the smoke pounces into her mouth before any sound could escape.

“Your wish is my command”

Chrysalid lands on the rooftop to the school and presses a button on her staff. A 3d hologram of both Ladybug’s message and a map of Paris shoot out. “Okay so that’s one section of city down, now I just need to check the park” she mutters aloud than shuts the holograms off. She doesn’t notice the cell phone taking a picture of her as she flew off.

She lands in front of the park’s statue only for a spotlight to go off on her face. She yelps and covers her eyes. “It’s Chrysalid” a dude’s voice cries and cheers quickly follow, Chrysalid slowly peeks out from her hands to see a crowd of people staring at her. There’s a group of both boys and girls her age wearing t shirts with her face on them taking pictures with their phones. 

“What’s going on?” Chrysalid squeaks and looks away from the flashes and gasps seeing the statue. Instead of Chat Noir and Ladybug it was Chrysalid posing with her staff held up to the sky with a butterfly on top of it. “I uh-I have to go” Chrysalid cries and launches into the air, the cameras and screaming fans following her as fast as they could.  
She doesn’t stop until she’s at the meeting spot, she can still hear fans screaming down below. Chrysalid uses her miraculous on her wrist like a phone and calls Ladybug’s to get her voicemail “Ladybug there’s something really weird going on here and-“ 

“Have you forgotten?” Chrysalid gasped from Ladybug’s voice behind a metal pole of the Eiffel tower. She couldn’t believe her eyes; Ladybug’s usual costume had changed. The colours were reversed and she had black lipstick on. Ladybug put her hands on her hips “I am Lady luck, your arch nemesis”. On cue the fan club starts to boo and hiss. Lady Luck whips her yo-yo and moves towards her “I will get your miraculous and my collection will be complete”.

Chrysalid wonders if she’s hit her head from mistiming a jump, this couldn’t be happening. “You can do this Chrysalid” a fan shouts from below snapping her out of her daze. Chrysalid pulls out her wand and gets into her best fighting stance. She makes a hand motion to bring it on and Lady Luck throws a punch. Chrysalid dodges and with the help of her butterflies takes off towards a more quiet part of town. She had to lead Lady Luck away from the fans so they didn’t get hurt. 

 

Avvina yawned landing on top of a rooftop, who knew being a super hero could be so boring? But she had promised Tutti she would do a full patrol of four hours. Then again she could always just move all the clocks forward in her room and Tutti would never know the difference. She grins and turns to fly home only for a blue feather to catch her eye. 

Paon gives a yawn as well but shakes it off in favor of opening his fan phone to try and contact the teammate that was supposed to be on patrol with him tonight. “Chat if there was a change of plans would it kill you to let me know?” he groans to his voice mail. He sits down and rubs at his eyes. It was like he was running on caffeine and sugar for the past few days. When a thump is heard behind him followed by a clang of hoops he flopped his head into his knees. He was too tired for this.

“Come here often big Bleu?” Avvina purrs stepping in front of him and fluttering her eyelashes. 

“Oh sure I come to this random rooftop all the time” Paon says propping his head up with his arm. 

Avvina throws her head back to laugh and sits beside him “handsome and charming, it’s a wonder why you’re still with that stupid bug”.

Paon gives her a weak evil eye, “excuse me?”

“Ladybug is such old news, and she’s totally holding you back” Avvina claims eyes lighting up with an idea. “You could be so much more powerful if you ditched that group and became my partner, we could be the love birds of Paris”.

Paon doesn’t reply at first trying to think of a way to wipe that smirk off her face and making it look like an accident. Instead he offers the most charming smile he could manage “I’m actually quite happy with my team thanks”.

“Come on-“Avvina purrs throwing her arm around him wrapping him in her brown fathers “-don’t you know birds of a feather flock together?”

“Until the cat comes” Paon says shuffling away as politely as he can. 

“Did someone call me?” Paon lets out a small sigh of relief at Chat’s voice. If anyone could remain cheery at all times it was him. Chat lands in the shadows and Paon got to his feet. Avvina just looked annoyed but alarm bells were going off for Paon. Chat stuck one hand against the huge chimney and drags it on the concrete. An awful sound like a scream makes both birds cover their ears in pain. Chat strolls out of the darkness revealing his suit had changed from black to white, and his green eyes had switched to a creepy yellow. “I think I’ll give you birds to my lady as a present” he purrs taking his baton out and spinning it several times.

“Oh please have you forgotten how badly I beat you with my hoops?” Avvina says holding out one playfully. Chat Blanc smirks and charges her, Avvina throws her hoop aiming for his leg only for the baton to block it. She starts throwing them rapid fire only for each one to be blocked. Chat gets close enough to kick her back and swings for Paon who back flips away. 

“You went twenty two days without falling under an akuma’s spell, a new record” Paon teases flipping open his fan. “I’m calling the team to deal with you and laugh about it afterwards” he announces making Avvina’s eyes widen in horror.

“NO!” Paon’s fan in suddenly knocked away by a hoop and falls into the river with a plop. He full on glares at Avvina who matches it to a t “we don’t need ladybug for this; I’ll show you I’m the better partner”.

Her hoops glow and she tosses two into the air “ALL MINE!”

The hoops transform into the item needed to get what she wanted, something in a clear plastic bag. She turns it over to read the front that read Queen Bee Halloween costume. She scowls “oh ha, ha very funny Tutti, I don’t need this for him to be my partner”. She tosses it aside and turns her attention back to the battle.

Paon danced around Blanc easily dodging his attacks. But then Chat fakes a swing to his left and manages to trip Paon up with his back feathers. “Are you going to help or not?” he snaps towards Avvina grabbing hold of the baton before it could break his ribs. 

“My item is useless for making you my partner” Avvina complains crossing her arms.

“Don’t you think there’s a bigger problem here?” Paon growls forcing the baton to hit the ground beside his head and using his legs to flip Chat over him. 

“Like what?” Avvina says watching Paon scramble to his feet and try to sweep Chat’s leg. Chat dodges and swoops behind Paon, he grabs his arm and forces it behind him painfully.

“Like Chat pulling a Michael Jackson here!” Paon is forced against the wall and Chat pulls out a pair of handcuffs. Paon grunts and climbs the wall with his feet. He flips over Chat and kicks him into the wall before back flipping towards Avvina landing right beside her. 

“Oh right” Avvina deadpans only for her earrings to give a beep “I have to go recharge” she says with an edge of panic.

Paon rolls his eyes and flips out the one fan he had left “then hurry up”. Avvina’s face lights up and she takes off to find somewhere to recharge. 

Paon and Blanc circle each other looking for an opening “I have to say Paon, I’m a huge fan of your fighting style” Chat purrs eyes flashing for a second.

“Good to know you’re still in there” Paon chirps snapping the fan closed and pouncing.

 

Raion watches Licorne strike a wooden dummy with her horn. Raion frowns and approaches the girl now gasping for breath. “You’re still hitting too soft, you might as well be hitting with a pillow” she grabs Licorne’s weapon and swings it at the dummy. Poor Licorne is too tired to free her arm from Raion’s grip. 

“Why don’t you give her a break? We’ve been at this for three nights straight” Gorm says making Raion pause. He was sitting on a stump playing on his guitar, little bursts of water coming from the strings. 

“We have to get stronger Gorm, we have to be ready for anything” Raion says letting Licorne go and watching her collapse on the ground. Raion takes out her sword and with one slash the dummy falls apart with a sizzling burn mark. 

“But how long will we last if we’re constantly exhausted?” Gorm bends at his knees and a lump of ice forms in his hands. Licorne takes it and places it on her throbbing right shoulder “maybe we should concentrate on our image for a few days, save a few cats stuck in trees, help a few grandma’s cross the street”. His eyes light up “Licorne and I had this idea where we combine our powers and make this sparkly snow-“

“We don’t have time for that!” Raion snaps before he could finish. “We’re not entertainers, we’re the knights of sin” she stomps away and climbs onto another stump “but if you want to be lazy then fine I won’t stop you”. She taps her sword and a timer appears on the handle “I’m going for a city run, and I’m not waiting for you two”. Without another word she pounces onto a rooftop and begins her run, likely going to try and break Paon’s record. 

“Poor Raion, she’s pushing herself too hard” Licorne mutters after a moment of listening to the crickets chirping. 

Gorm puts a hand on his miraculous and sighs “I didn’t take on the power of wrath just for the responsibilities of being a hero; I also thought it would be really fun.” Licorne crushes the ice blob and blows on the crumbled remains, the ice dust quickly melted in the warm night. “We need to teach that girl how to have fun” Gorm says watching some of the ice dust settle on the burnt wood making small puffs of smoke appear. 

 

“Running out of ideas Paon?” Blanc purrs forcing Paon to back up to avoid his strikes. Paon grunts and blocks with the fan and the baton rip though the fabric. He thinks fast and closes the fan over the baton and flips it out of Blanc’s hands. 

“Not yet” Paon chirps pointing the baton now in his hands at Blanc’s surprised face. Before Paon could attack Blanc’s ears picked up on the sound of hoops clanging, he whips around and grabs Avvina before she could land her attack. Then he swings her into Paon sending them both down to the streets below. 

“I thought birds could fly” Blanc taunts pouncing on the two dazed birds and tying them up with his belt tail. 

Chrysalid makes cute little grunts avoiding Lady Luck’s attacks, “if this is a training exercise I’d like a break please” she cries nearly getting her hair sliced by the yo-yo string.

Lady Luck laughs tripping Chrysalid and jumping on top of her. “Oh I’m not playing any games, now give it” she grabs Chrysalid’s wrist and goes to pull the miraculous off. She almost has it when a glowing white rope wraps around her hand and pulls her back. Lady Luck tries to free herself but she’s yanked off Chrysalid and wrapped around a metal pole  
“HEY!”

“Is a food for horses-“Licorne giggles “-which is me”. Gorm offers a hand to Chrysalid with a gentle smile. “Knights of Wrath and Lust at your service” Licorne chirps shaking Chrysalid’s hand gleefully. 

Gorm approaches Lady Luck who was struggling to get out of Licorne’s lasso “what happened to her anyway, Butterfly go rogue?”

Lady Luck stops struggling and an inhuman laugh erupts from her throat. Gorm takes a step back as her eyes change to bright red dots and she smiles in a way that showed off too many teeth. “The butterfly made a wish and a genie cannot resist granting wishes” Lady Luck spoke but a different voice was coming out. This voice was deeper and had an accent from the Middle East. 

“Ladybug’s been possessed by a genie?” Licorne squeaks hiding behind Chrysalid. Lady Luck suddenly calls upon her lucky charm and is given a sharp sword to slice the lasso off. She grabs hold of Gorm and holds him up by the neck. 

“In return for granting your wish I require magic, I must become more powerful” the genie explained and the light disappears from their eyes. “And to get it I’ll take yours” Lady Luck’s normal voice returns with a smirk. Gorm’s eyes widen in fear and his feet twitch as a sound like wind being blown is heard. Lady Luck lets him go and he collapses to the ground, she then turns her attention to the two terrified hero’s. “Now who’s next?”

Chrysalid bites her lip mind spinning a mile a minute; she had to fix this somehow. She gasps and grabs Licorne’s hands “I got an idea” she announces pulling her away from the villain. Lady Luck rolls her eyes and moves to follow them and spies a bunch of butterflies taking Gorm’s unconscious body to a safe location. She considers following but the boys identity was the last thing she cared about; instead she moves to greet the white cat jumping towards her. 

“Two birds Chat, you spoil me” Lady Luck purrs as Chat drops his load in front of her. She flips open her yo-yo and shows him a post on a social website, “now we can take down the butterfly”. It showed Chrysalid flying into the soccer stadium a few minutes away from where they were. 

Lady Luck lands in the dark stadium and rubs her hands together while Blanc tossed the birds down snickering at their muffled complaints. 

Licorne’s limited night vison catches Chrysalid giving a thumb up and moves into position. Licorne moves her horn towards a control panel “unicorn wish” she whispers activating her power. 

Lady and Chat gasps as a huge purple spotlight shoots into the sky displaying a butterfly. “Lady Luck and Chat Blanc, your reign of terror ends here” Chrysalid shouts as more lights come on blinding them. Heroic music blares over the speakers and Chrysalid appears on the other end on the field. 

“You think you can take us both down?” Lady Luck laughs spinning her yo-yo. 

Paon scans the area trying to find something to free himself and spies a white butterfly coming towards them. He thinks it’s going to join the thousands that swarmed Chrysalid and formed into a giant fist and arm which she throws towards the villains. But this butterfly along with six others landed on the belt and released the caterpillar they were carrying. Paon watches in awe as the bugs chew away at the fabric until he can rip it off. 

“Hey this is actually working” Chrysalid squeaks as one butterfly fist collides with Blanc and shoots him though the goalpost. Suddenly the sprinklers turn on making her butterflies scatter to avoid getting wet, Lady Luck sees her chance and swings her lucky charm at Chrysalid’s head. Chrysalid pulls out her sword from the wand to defend herself. 

“Sorry I must have activated everything” Licorne squeaks voice getting picked up by the mic. 

“ALL MINE” Avvina shouts summoning her item, she catches a laser pointer and groans in annoyance.

“Do you have to shout that?” Paon asks sarcastically as their cover was now blown and Blanc was charging them. The sprinklers didn’t bother him or Chat as they fought, but without a fan Paon has to rely on his back feathers to trip Chat up. But Chat is used to this trick and jumps over it. Before Paon can react Chat extends the baton and hits Paon across the field.

“Time for some fried chicken, Cataclysm” Chat Blanc summons his power to his hand. Paon looks up ready to his life flash before his eyes but instead he sees Chat following around a red dot. Just as he’s at the goalpost a hoop catches both his legs and his cataclysm hand. The cataclysm is wasted on the post and Blanc is unable to free his legs. He is forced to wiggle like a caterpillar. 

“Nice” Paon compliments Avvina throwing her a thumb up, Avvina does the same with the most adorable star struck grin. 

Paon charges towards Lady Luck and Chrysalid who was desperately trying to force the villain back. He plucks a brown feather from his belt and the tip turned into a pointed end like a pen. Lady Luck takes on look at him with the water misting around him and screams. Chrysalid falls on her behind and watches as a red smoke flees Lady Luck’s mouth with a horrifying sound. When Paon is next to her he can only catch Lady Luck as her costume changes back into Ladybug’s.

“What happened?” Ladybug says opening her eyes to greet Paon.

After the city is fixed by a miraculous ladybug sequence and an explanation is given Ladybug scratches her chin. “So a genie is attacking Paris, where did it come from?”

“And where did it go?” Chat chimes in looking around for the red cloud. 

“We were awesome Paon, will I see you tomorrow for patrol?” Avvina purrs casually throwing her arm around him. 

“Tomorrow’s my day off actually” Paon said forcing a yawn down.

“You could make an exception for me” Avvina pushes sticking her lips out in a way that she must have thought was cute. 

“Nope” Paon moves out of her grip making her fumble to avoid falling over. “See you guys later” he chirps then shoots out of the stadium with his newly recovered fans.

 

The heavy prison door opens loudly into the interview room. Adrien doesn’t even muster a sheepish smile this time at his father who insisted they have their talks here. A small TV had been added to the room for Gabriel’s good behavior (as well as his wallet) currently displaying the news story that showed the evil versions of Ladybug and Chat Noir.

“Adrian we have much to discuss” Mr. Agreste starts coldly. Adrian gulped as he shuffled though some papers on his desk and handed him one “Nathalie was let out of the hospital today and is currently living here, you are to live with her and follow her rules”. Adrian’s mouth falls in shock “You have had a break but you need to catch up on your studies so I have hired a team of tutors to keep you busy for the remainder of the summer”.

“I can’t go here, Father it’s outside Paris” Adrian’s voice cracks and he places the paper down gently.

“You’ll just have to tell your friends-“Gabe stares directly at Adrian’s ring making shivers run up his spine. “-that you will be taking a break from…your hobbies”

“NO Father” Adrian stands up with a loud squawk from the chair “I won’t do that, and I won’t be living with Nathalie either”.

Gabriel’s expression grew dark “you will do as I say Adrian, you know why?”

“Why” Adrian spit.

“You know how popular Paon is right now?” Gabriel motioned to the TV showcasing Paon using his miraculous heal in the Achu kingdom. “Just imagine how the people would feel when they discover how he got his powers” Gabriel paused so Adrian could feel the weight of his words. “How in the beginning he called Hawk moth, Master” 

“You wouldn’t” Adrian hissed trying to look intimidating but quickly breaking down under Gabriel’s stare. 

“Go pack your bags and tell your friends the news” Gabriel ordered folding the paper with the address and handing it to him. 

For the first time Adrian really sees Hawk moth from his father, “yes father” he says without emotion. 

“You have a balanced breakfast at 7:30 with lessons until lunchtime at 12:00, you are only allowed to play on your phone during breaks and you must be in bed by 8” Nathalie rattles on about the schedule and a huge list of rules that Adrian only half listens to. With her hair back up in its bun Nathalie had returned to her emotionless loyal to Mr. Agreste self. The house was bland and boring with almost nothing in it to make it a home and not a house up for presentation. When he opens the door to his room he gasps seeing huge metal bars over every window, he moves up to one and shakes it finding it wouldn’t give. 

“For your own safety the windows will not be open at any time, the house is air conditioned so you don’t have to worry about the heat” Nathalie explained than shut the door behind her. Adrian’s hair stands up as a lock is heard from the outside. 

“Even I’m starting to feel claustrophobic” Plagg announces zipping around the room and reading off the set of rules printed on the door. “NO CAMEMBERT! ADRIAN HOW COULD YOU LET HIM DO THIS?” he wails smacking into Adrien’s chest.

“I can’t let my father hurt Nathaniel, to protect his freedom I’ll give up mine” Adrian explains sounding like a lump was in his throat. “We should tell the team, Plagg claws out”

Marionette wakes up hearing the emergency message from her team beep in her ear, with a yawn she transforms and flips open the yo-yo. She’s greeted by Chat’s goofy smile with a white background behind him. “Hey team I uh got some bad news…” he scratches behind his neck.

“Some family trouble happened recently and I had to leave Paris” Chat explains. Carapace hidden under his blankets gasps quietly. 

“I’ll be gone for the rest of the summer…” Rena scowls trying to read Chat’s expression, but it was painfully blank. 

“I don’t even know if I’ll be back in September…I’d rather not leave at all” Bee bites her lip as Chat’s eyes slightly water. Maybe when she first started as Queen Bee she wouldn’t have cared if the guy she considered a sidekick disappeared. But after working alongside him so long he was just as important to the team as she was. 

Plus without him who was going to take her shifts when her favorite store had a sale?

“I wish I could tell you guys personally, but I can’t” Chrysalid hears a whimper from her butterflies and opens the blankets for them to fly underneath. What had happened to Chat to make them afraid? 

“I’m going to miss you all, especially you Ladybug” Ladybug felt her lip tremble with a smile as Chat blew a kiss towards the camera. 

“This is Chat signing me-out” Chat finished with a peace sign. Paon frowned knowing exactly why Chat was leaving and hating it all the same. His father was in jail, in supervillain jail no less and he was still letting him govern his life. 

After losing the costume Nathaniel pushed his chair up and put his pencil on the paper to draw. “Nath you need to get some sleep” Duusu stated landing on the paper.

“I’m fine Duusu I just need to finish this piece” he stated rubbing his eyes. Duusu isn’t having it, she flies up and pushes him towards the bed.

“You’re going to bed mister, the piece can wait till tomorrow” 

Nath groans but allows the kwami to tuck him in, “fine goodnight Duusu”.

“Goodnight peachick” Duusu says flipping off the light. 

 

Nathanial pushed open the massive doors to Mr. Agreste’s office “you wanted to see me?” he asks shyly. He flinched when Gabriel looked over at him and waved him over with his hand. Nath quietly moves in and sits on the chair on the other side of the desk kept clean and organized. 

Mr. Agreste put his hands together on the desk “so it has come to my attention that you have been sneaking sweets to my son. I don’t think you understand that his diet is very strict and he can’t run the risk of acne with his modeling career”.

“I’m sorry sir” Nath practically whispered staring at his feet rather than at Gabriel. As result he doesn’t notice the evil glint in the man’s eye as he cleared his throat. 

“Normally I would ban such troublemakers from my house but perhaps I can make an exception this time” Gabriel said tapping a button under the table. A buzzing sound began to play from a speaker disguised as a pencil holder. It was soft enough that most people wouldn’t even notice it. “You are an artist correct? Would you mind giving me your opinion of this new piece I’ve been working on?”

A flash of fear crossed Nathaniel’s face as Gabriel searched his desk drawer. Mr. Agreste the head of a huge fashion company was asking him for his opinion? He gulped nervously and his head felt fuzzy. Gabriel found what he was looking for and held it out to him. 

“This is a gem I’m using for my latest line” Gabriel announced running his fingers down the fabric. It was a deep purple with pinks, yellows and blacks slipped in like a galaxy. “It is designed to capture the eye of all in the room” he explained keeping his eyes on the boy in front of him. “And when under light-“something round under the fabric lights up“-It captivates the mind” Nathaniel gasps as the room is flooded by a purple light, it floods his vision making the rest of the room disappear. “It’s beautiful isn’t it?”

“Yeah…” Nathaniel mutters softly. Gabriel slowly moves his hand smirking as Nathaniel’s head bobbed to follow it. 

“And it can do something else can’t it?”

“Yeah…”

“Tell me Nathaniel, what can it do?” Gabriel asks.

“It-“Nathaniel pausing eyes drooping “-it controls me” 

“And who controls this light?” Gabriel lost his smirk when Nathaniel groaned trying to move his head away. Gabriel stood up and moved around the desk to move some of Nathaniel’s hair out of his face. Nathaniel stopped moving and stared blankly at the light.

“My master…my master controls the light” he mumbles.

Gabriel smiled looking at the light reflecting off the boys eyes. “And I’m holding the light so that must make me your master”.

“Yes you…are my master” Nathaniel says automatically 

“Good” Gabriel purred stepping behind Nathaniel and running the back of his hand down the boys cheek. “I was worried that with the akuma almost destroyed in your miraculous our fun was over” he continued bending down by his knees to be at eye level with him.

Nathaniel didn’t reply, eyes still trapped on the light that used to come from his miraculous late at night. Gabriel opened Nath’s jacket and pulled out a sleeping Duusu, a horrible smirk on his face discovering her programming was still in effect. He watches the hypnotized boy sink deeper into his trance, waiting until all that was left was an obedient shell 

“Listen closely puppet, your master has orders for you” Gabriel purred tilting the boys chin to meet his lifeless eyes. “You are going to come to my office after your little gaming sessions with my son, and the moment you lock eyes with me you will fall into a trance like the one you’re in now”. 

“Yes master, I will obey” Nathaniel mumbled making Gabriel grin evilly.

“Good puppet” Gabriel said with a chuckle. He stood up and went back to his chair “Now then we can get some work done”. 

Nathaniel opened his eyes to see the darkened shape of his room. He was wondering when he would get to that one, the first time he went to that office. Mr. Agreste always made sure he wouldn’t remember their “talks” but without the constant programming his brain had begun to break down the walls. Slowly he was remembering every time he was lured into a trance, every time he was brainwashed into Hawk moth’s puppet. The pillow absorbed the tears he quietly shed, Hawk moth was defeated and yet his presence was overwhelming his mind. He couldn’t tell Duusu, she would worry and there wasn’t anything she could do. He definitely couldn’t tell Chat, he wouldn’t be able to handle just how much of a monster his father really was. He almost wished the programming that made him have visions would come back, at least those were useful. They didn’t show him how he was humiliated. 

Nathaniel didn’t see himself as hateful person, but he hated Mr. Agreste with a passion that scared him.


	10. Bee careful what you wish for

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was thinking of making these chapters shorter, but then that didn't happen. Oh well.

Chapter ten Bee careful what you wish for

“You must understand my mistress, he is a child of moon” the genie pleads falling into a room that looked like an old dance studio. A large mirror made up an entire wall and the floor was hardwood. The cloud form shifted into a more human like form, her skin and hair remained crimson. 

“I understand dear child but you must understand this” a voice like a mothers purred in her ear. But instead of comforting it’s like a knife is being held to her throat. “Because of your cowardly escape you wasted your second wish and are now down to your last one” the genie whimpered and hugged her shoulders. 

“I won’t fail you my mistress, I stole enough magic from the miraculous wielders that my last wish will not fail. I will get you that boy’s soul “

“You’d better” The genie yelps and grabs an invisible hand that had wrapped around her neck. “Because if you return without it” the fingers tighten forcing choked sounds from the genie “then I’ll have to find something else to keep me alive until I can taste it”. Without another word the genie falls to the floor grabbing her neck. 

 

“Jalil just send it already” Alix orders standing outside her brothers room with one foot leaning against the door. In the room covered in papers and clothing everywhere but put away was Jalil staring at a text he made over ten minutes ago. 

“What if I scare her off? What if this is too forward and I totally destroy our friendship?” Jalil says tossing the phone across the bed and running a hand though his hair. 

Alix picks the phone up and chuckles “wow you really know how to ask a girl out”. Jalil hears the message sent sound and tries to make a grab for it. “Message sent” Alix announced while Jalil tried to become one with the bed he fell dramatically on.

Pollen shuffles out of her tiny doll bed with silk sheets bright and early. She gives a small cute yawn and floats over to the window. Watching the sunrise was her favorite part of the day, it was the perfect temperature, there was a faint smell of lilacs from the small bush she had convinced Chloe to get and the birds were singing their morning songs. She propped her head up with her arms and closed her eyes to listen to them. There were the usual pigeons, a robin, and a few bluebirds and…

“HONK”

A peacock? Pollen opens her eyes and sees a small bird shooting towards her at top speed, before she can move Duusu plows into her. 

“Pollen thank goodness I found you we were at the park and I’m don’t know what’s happening and-” Pollen cuts off Duusu’s rambling by slamming her nub into Duusu’s mouth. 

“Why don’t you calm down and then explain to me what’s wrong” Pollen ordered taking her nub out and pushing Duusu into the bathroom. From there Pollen flies to the massive mirror and the two phase though it.

On the other side is best described as five star hive, Duusu is in awe at the doll furniture mixing with the organic honeycombs. Pollen sits on a red velvet chair and gestures for Duusu to sit on the one opposite her. Duusu sits down and Pollen offers her a teacup “would you like some honey? Made it myself” Pollen says with a proud smile.

“I’ll never understand how you have time and energy to do all this” Duusu says politely taking the honey and having a sip.

“When you have a holder like Chloe you need a space to cool down and relax” Pollen takes a sip of her own cup. “Now can you tell me why you flew half across Paris to see me?” 

Duusu opens her mouth wide and takes a deep breath. “Calmly” Pollen orders before the crying could start.

Duusu lets out the breath slowly “this morning my peachick and I went to the park to draw when out of nowhere I started glowing and my peachick was glowing too. When I told him he thought I was seeing things and didn’t believe me. And then when we passed a guy feeding pigeons he kicked a bird to get the popcorn first! He was so embarrassed and I can’t help but think maybe I did something but I don’t know what. I still feel all light and tingly. Oh if I hurt him I’d-“

“Duusu” Pollen cuts her off seeing Duusu’s eyes start to water. “You didn’t hurt him hon, you and your wielder bonded that’s all”. 

“What?” Duusu’s voice cracks and she wipes her eyes.

“It’s a thing that happens when you and a person share energy for a long time, what you witnessed was your magic becoming a part of him” Pollen quickly moves to catch the teacup Duusu had dropped in shock. 

“So he’s going to take on bird traits?” Duusu squeaks eyes growing wide “oh sugar cakes what if he starts laying eggs!”

“He’s not going to do that” Pollen says with a chuckle. “I can tell you from holders I’ve bonded with the most you see are small behavior changes. Like some took a great interest in gardening while others would eat nothing but honey for weeks”. 

“How come I never knew about this?” Duusu sobs accepting the tissue Pollen had handy. 

“The more you like the person the easier the magic flows to them, and Duusu you tend to love your holders a lot” Pollen smirks and pats Duusu’s head. “So the guardians found it best not to let you bond with any of your holders…until now” Pollen smirked as Duusu’s face lit up. “And it’s about time, it’s an amazing experience”.

Pollen fell back into a memory of one of her old holders. The glorious Cleopatra wore her bee suit to fight alongside another miraculous wielder of the snake. Her outfit looked made of pure gold with wings of diamond. Her snake partner was dressed in a much simpler tunic around their waist with scales on his arms and legs. Instead of hair he had the hood of a cobra complete with the slit yellow eyes. A yellow dust surrounded Cleo as she flew towards a giant cat monster.

“We become closer, stronger, and more agile” 

Cleo dodged the attack the monster threw easily and held up her glowing top.

“And with practice we gain access to different powers”

Cleo opened the top to reveal more golden dust; she gently blows on it sending a dust cloud towards the monster. The monster shakes his head as it covers him. Then it yowls as it’s lifted into the air with a golden aura. The snake uses his own weapon to wrap around the helpless beasts body and with a poof a kitten appears in its place. The two coo over it as the memory ends.

Pollen has her nubs on her cheeks with a dopey smile on her face. “So have you bonded with Chloe?” Duusu blurts popping Pollen’s bubble.

“Well uh no” Pollen starts rubbing her nubs together anxiously “Chloe still has a lot of growing up to do and-“

“POLLEN, WHY ISN’T MY BREAKFAST HERE YET!” Chloe yelled from her room in her usual bratty manner.

Pollen slapped her forehead “Butterscotch. I completely forgot to ring in her breakfast this morning”. “Duusu can you please see yourself out, I have to go deal with miss cranky pants” Duusu nods and accepts a tiny jar of honey Pollen had for her to take home. 

A few minutes’ later Pollen watches from her hiding spot as a female staff member entered Chloe’s room with a covered breakfast. “Who are you? Where is Jean?” Chloe snaps at the already nervous lady.

“My name is Amy and Jean had a cold so I am covering for him” she squeaks placing the plate down where Chloe normally would eat. She takes off the lid revealing a delicious plate of scrambled eggs, buttered toast and bacon strips 

“Well you’re doing everything wrong Alice” Chloe stomps over to the plate. “I can’t eat bacon or I’ll break out. What idiot is in the kitchen ruining my breakfast? Take this back and bring me my egg whites on whole grain NOW!”

The lady quickly grabs the plate and rushes out of the room. Before Chloe can make a comment Pollen slaps the back of her head knocking the ponytail to the front. “Don’t you start Pollen, I’m in a bad enough mood with you neglecting your duties”.

Pollen grit her teeth “don’t take it out on the staff Chloe; you know that’s not how a queen acts”.

“But it’s absolutely ridiculous; the staff here should know what I order for breakfast” 

“It’s a simple mistake” Pollen states calmly hoping Chloe would cool down.

“My mother would have her fired over this, in fact I think I will fire that worthless Amber” Chloe snaps moving to grab her phone to do the deed. 

“Chloe you have to wait for your anger to cool before making such decisions” Pollen swoops in and grabs the phone before Chloe can. Chloe makes a grab for it but Pollen flies it out of reach, resulting in a comedic chase that left the room in a chaotic state.

Chloe pounces and grabs Pollen out of the air. They land on the bed with a plop “I’ve got you now you-“

The door suddenly slams open and Chloe has to shove Pollen under a pillow. Sabrina runs in waving her phone in Chloe’s face “Chloe I got us front seats aren’t’ you excited! I was thinking of dressing up as Rena and maybe you could go as Carapace. ”

The phone had a ticket for the dog show and Chloe let her temper flare. “What makes you think I want to go to a stupid dog show” she snaps making Sabrina flinch. “Dogs are filthy ugly gross animals, I would never subject myself to a tent full of the smelly things.” She points her finger and makes Sabrina back up as she continued. “And dress up as Carapace? How ridiculous and stupid can you get? Do I look like a clown to you?” She had Sabrina backed against the wall now. “I have no desire to waste my time at a ridiculous dog show!”

“You said you would go” Sabrina whimpers body starting to tremble.

“Well change of plans” Chloe snapped flipping her hair “I have better things to do”.

“But it’s my birthday” Sabrina choked tears starting to fall from her eyes “you promised”. Her tiny body shakes as she loudly starts to cry. Chloe watches her run from her room and slam the door behind her. 

“I certainly told her off, mom would be proud” Chloe bragged not noticing Pollen slowly floating up from her hiding spot. Rage burned around her tiny body and her stinger enlarged.

“VENOM” Pollen screams slamming her stinger into Chloe’s behind. Chloe yelps as pain erupts form the area “VENOM, VENOM, VENOM, VENOM, VENOM, VENOM!!!!” Chloe runs around the room as Pollen continued her assault. 

“THAT’S ENOUGH” Chloe screams collapsing over her bed to get away from the enraged Kwami. Pollen feels the tug of ownership and is forced to stop. Chloe lifts her head up cheeks slightly enlarged from stings “how dare you do this to my beautiful face”.

“How dare you speak to your best friend that way, you are going to apologise to her this instant young lady” Pollen counters matching Chloe’s glare. 

“I don’t have to do anything, she brought it upon herself” Chloe ripped open a drawer to pull out a half used container of sting cream. “Now where is my phone, I still need to fire Allie” 

“Her name is Amy, Chloe could you please at least try to remember that” Pollen pleaded slapping the sides of her face. 

“My Mom never bothered to remember lesser people’s names, why should I?”

Pollen took a deep breath before answering; she couldn’t let her emotions boil out of control any longer. “Because you’re not your mom, you’re a lady in waiting training to be a queen” Pollen stated calmly. 

“WHAT! I WAS A PRINCESS YESTERDAY” Chloe shook with bratty rage. “You know what I don’t need your stupid royal ranking, I know I’m a queen. My mother was a queen and I’m just like my mother so you should treat me like the queen I am”. A most horrible smirk appears on Chloe’s face and Pollen flinches in horror. “You know what Pollen? I order you to address me as your Queen” 

Pollen gasped. Fudge, had Chloe figured it out? Kwami had to obey the orders of their wielders, something Pollen had made sure not to tell her when they first met. No good could come out of Pollen being another Sabrina.

“Now give me my phone” Chloe demanded with that same evil smirk.

Pollen swallowed a growl “yes my queen” she hisses under her breath.

“What was that?” Chloe puts a hand to her ear teasingly.

“YES MY QUEEN” Pollen shouts retrieving the phone and placing it into Chloe’s awaiting hands. Pollen almost has smoke burning out of her head as Chloe did the deed. She then puts the phone down on the table. 

“Now that’s more like it, can you be a good little kwami wait here while I take a shower” Chloe uses baby talk just to make Pollen’s blood boil.

“Yes my queen” Pollen growls as Chloe takes her miraculous off and sets it on the breakfast table. As the bathroom door slams Pollen curses knowing she couldn’t get to her hive.

“I wish you knew what it was like to be a kwami” Pollen growled and then hears a hissing behind her. Realising her mistake Pollen turns to see the red cloud making its way to her miraculous comb. “NO, NO, NO, NO!” Pollen makes a grab for it but the cloud absorbs into the comb before she can stop it.

“Your wish is my command” 

Pollen opens her eyes and gasps at what she sees. Her nub on the comb was now a fully formed hand, in her shock Pollen bends each finger with a silent scream. She picks up the comb and sees her reflection in the silver covering the maid left.  
“I have to fix this” Pollen squeaks running a hand though her hair, she had actual hair! Her thoughts are interrupted by the Jalil text sound from the phone.

{Hi Polly, I just wanted to let you know that the museum has this new exhibit on Egyptian history and I’d love to show you it sometime. Like a date. But if you don’t want it to be a date then that’s totally fine. Let me know if you’re ever in Paris and we can make a date or uh plan.}

Jalil was asking her on a date…Jalil was asking her on a date. Pollen stared at it until her vison became fuzzy. Jalil was such a wonderful guy; she couldn’t lead him on like this. She was a kwami; she had duties that were more important than her own desires. She had to tell him she couldn’t speak with him anymore, the very thought brought tears to her eyes. 

But she wasn’t a kwami anymore, the thought made Pollen freeze. She looks down at her petite human body and a plan forms in her head. She giggles excitedly not noticing how her blue eyes mixed with the genie’s red to become purple. 

“I can’t believe you sent it” Jalil cries grabbing his pillow and shoving it over his face.

“How else are you going to learn this is just a dirty trick from Chloe?” Alix says scrolling through her brothers pictures for possible blackmail material. A ding is heard “she texted back” Alix says with a huge smirk. She clears her throat and in the deepest romantic accent she reads “oh Jalil I would love to go on a date with you, how does tonight sound at eight?” she paused and reread the message. “Wait what?” 

Jalil launches off the bed and grabs his phone, “how will I know it’s you?” he speaks aloud using the mic option to write the message. A few seconds later Polly sends him another text along with a photo.

{Just look for this} 

The photo is of the top of Polly’s head with a bright red honeycomb comb standing out in her black hair. Alix peeks over Jalil’s shoulder and scowls while Jalil literally bounces in excitement “I got a date, I got a date” he sings jumping off the bed and doing a little victory dance. 

Alix takes her own phone out and texts the name listed as “tomato head” {Nath, we got a problem. Meet me at the art gallery}

“Come on Chloe we need to make sure my outfit is perfect for tonight” Pollen purrs spinning around in one of Chloe’s outfits. It was the one Chloe normally wore to school and it made Pollen have to gag “not this trash” she laughs.

“That’s my best outfit” Chloe snaps from the pillow she was standing on. Her kwami form looked like Pollen’s as far as the bee theme was concerned but the signature ponytail and sunglasses remained. “Why are you even doing this? You have to change me back this instant” she stamped her nubby foot which made a tiny squeak.

“I don’t have to do anything you want” Pollen snaps back with a laugh. “For the first time in my life I have control, and I’m not giving it up to a brat like you” Pollen flips her hair and uses Chloe’s hairbrush to make it shine. 

“How dare you, this is my life we’re talking about” Chloe zooms into Pollen’s face. Pollen stopped laughing and her eyes turned as hard as a stone.

“I am the kwami of subjection, I embody the act of putting something under control and yet I must obey my owner like a slave.” Chloe subconsciously flew down making Pollen appear larger. “This is how it always should have been, the god having control over the mortal. The kwami is the master of the wielder”.

Chloe raises her nub like a schoolchild “Aren’t I technically the kwami now?” 

Pollen freezes for half a second “always the smart mouth” she moves over to the makeup table and picks up a container of eyeshadow. “For that I will finally rid the world of this godawful shade” 

“Pollen that’s my favorite eye shadow NO” Chloe moves to grab it but it’s too late. Pollen chucks the makeup out the window and it vanishes into the streets below. 

Pollen dusts her hands “I say I’ve done the world a favour”.

Chloe growls like a dog “when we change back I’m going to make you regret that, I’m going to make you organize my entire closet and bathroom TWICE”

Pollen smirks and walks back to the closet “oh Chloe you know I love organizing, why don’t I start while I’m big enough to lift multiple outfits.” Chloe watches in horror as Pollen grabs an armful of clothes and walks back towards the balcony. “Garbage, trash, horrid, ugly” Pollen hums chucking designer clothing off the edge. 

“YOU MONSTER” Chloe screams punching Pollen’s behind with her nubs, it dawns on her that she’s the bee kwami and she looks at her stinger. With a war cry she moves the stinger towards the back of Pollen’s neck.

“Stop” Pollen orders calmly, Chloe cries in frustration as she freezes in the air. “We’ll be having none of that” Pollen does baby talk and shakes her finger. “You’re going to be a good little bee and sit politely in my purse until I say otherwise” Chloe’s face is red with anger as she obeys and sits in the small yellow purse. 

“YOU WILL REGRET THIS YOU FREAKING BUG!” Chloe shouts as Pollen calmly uses her makeup to do up her face. 

“You know what Chloe I’m going to do the thing I’ve wanted to do ever since we met. “Zip it” Pollen commands doing a zipping motion over her lips. To Chloe’s horror her mouth slams shut and no matter how hard she tried she couldn’t get any sound out. 

Pollen takes out a yellow sundress and puts it on with a sigh “it will have to do until we can find a better outfit, you don’t mind if I use your card right?” Chloe’s muffled screams are her answer. 

Juleka took a few steps down the road and looked around “okay Nooroo the coast is clear”.

The kwami pops out from her purse and lands on her shoulder. “Any plan to how we’re going to track down this genie?” he asks leaning back to enjoy the cool summer breeze.

“Ladybug said she was going to look into it, we’re supposed to watch out for any unusual emotions” Juleka stated. “I’m just glad my nightmare wish didn’t last” she adds and Nooroo nods in agreement.

“Hey Jul” Marionette chirps making Juleka yelp and hide Nooroo under her hair quickly. Marionette and the rest of the girl group minus Alix come out from behind the corner with huge smiles on their faces. Juleka sees they were all wearing a dark purple shirt with a white butterfly on the front. “I heard Chrysalid was having a hard time so I wanted to show her someone has her back” Marionette explains seeing Juleka’s face pale.

“She helped me save Ivan from those birds, it’s the least we can do” Mylene chimed in sticking her chest out in pride. Juleka smiled at the text under the butterfly “anyone can be a hero”. 

“We were trying to find Alix to give her one, want to come with us?” Rose chirps holding out a shirt for Juleka. Juleka smiles and takes it; the girls always had her back, even when they didn’t realize it. 

“This here was the bed of gold where Cleopatra was found after taking her life. Although the method is unknown most believe it was done by a cobra based off the pricks found on her arm despite no snake ever being found” Jalil was using his teacher voice to the group of younger kids behind him. Taking up the summer job as a guide sounded like a good idea at the time but he couldn’t wait for it to be over. If one more kid asked him about her breast size he was going to scream.

“That’s because the snake didn’t do the deed” a girl’s voice says from behind. Jalil turned to face the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. She wore a black dress that went down to her knees and gold jewelry on her wrist and neck. She had thick eyeliner that made her small purplish eyes pop and sleek black hair that ran down her back. But what caught Jalil’s eye was the red bee comb in her hair “the cobra’s life is to protect the queen, he would never be her end even if she begged. No the pricks were caused by one of her hair combs dipped in a poison”.  
The group’s eyes widened with interest for the first time since the tour had started. Jalil only knew one person who spoke of a cobra that way. “Polly?” Jalil gasped and looked at his watch; it was thirty minutes to eight. 

“I always like to be early, hope you don’t mind” Polly chirped with a cute smile. 

Hours later the two walk past two suspiciously large plants chatting away about each other and history. As soon as they pass the room the first one shakes and Alix pops out revealing the plant was fake. “Come on Nath they’re heading to the next section” she whispers to the other pot. When it doesn’t move she removes the fake leafs to find Nath had fallen asleep curled up in the pot. 

Nathaniel yelps as cold water pours on his head and in his spasm to get away he bangs his head on the pot. “What is wrong with you?” he hisses at Alix snickering with an empty water bottle in hand.

“You can fall asleep anywhere” Alix teases turning away to follow the two. Nath sticks his tongue out at her and struggles to get out of the pot without tipping it over. 

Polly has her arm wrapped around his as they stop in front of the entrance “I had a great time Polly, it was incredible to finally meet you” Jalil says tucking some hair behind his ear. 

Polly’s eyes widened “does it have to end already?” she squeaks before she can help it.

Jalil scratched the back of his head “I’ve already shown you everything in the museum, unless you wanted to go for a smoothie”. His voice fills with hope at the idea; Alix hiding behind a trash can pretends to gag. 

“That sounds great but-“she pauses with a sneaky smirk “-any chance you can show me the new Egyptian find?” 

“It’s in the back being examined, non-employees aren’t allowed back there” Jalil blushes as she bats her eyelashes at him. “But I could make an exception this time”.

Alix moves to follow but Nathaniel grabs the back of her shirt “you heard him we’re not supposed to go back there”.

“Oh come on Nath don’t act like you don’t break the rules whenever they’re not in your favor” Alix hissed grabbing the back of his shirt and dragging him with her. Despite the very noticeable height difference she’s able to do so easily. 

“But they’re not doing anything; Polly seems like a nice girl” Nath cries quietly trying to free himself from her grip.

“Seems” Alix echo’s stubbornly, “she’s planning something and we’re going to expose her”.

Polly looks like a kid in a candy shop as Jalil leads her into a room with items covered in protective wrapping. She admires some fossils on a table being studied while Jalil slips off into the other side of the room. “Polly” Jalil calls getting her attention “this is perhaps the biggest find of the year”. He carefully pulls the brown blanket off revealing a giant slab of hieroglyphs with two giant figures in the usual Egyptian style. Polly recognizes her old wielder immediately and squeals in excitement. Cleopatra was unrecognizable in her bee costume to those who didn’t know her secret, but still looked like royalty. Her snake partner was shown on the other side of a bunch of text that made Polly gasp. She knew what this was.

“I know right” Jalil says pointing to the Cleopatra drawing “this could prove that there was more than just a Ladybug in ancient Egypt, there was a Queen Bee” 

“The Sun Goddess” Polly breaths tracing hand down the rock, Jalil asks what she means and she points to a sun image above Cleopatra’s head. “And the protector of the sun, the Cobra” she mumbles feeling dizzy all of a sudden. 

Jalil’s jaw hit the ground “you could be right, how did I not notice that?” he grabs a book from a nearby table and opens it to reveal it was a translator for that writing. “There’s a snake miraculous, this is a huge discovery” he squeals not noticing Polly’s distress. “I wonder what the rest of this piece means”.

“It contains a spell, a spell that should have never been created” Polly mutters as if in a trance. She places her hand on the stone and closes her eyes. She starts to mutter something in a language Jalil only knows a limited amount of; he opens his mouth to ask what she was doing only for the writing to start glowing. Polly reopens her eye to reveal they also glowed a bright yellow. A wind began to surround them and the stone started to crack. The wind is so strong it blows Jalil away causing him to crash into a table covered in papers. Polly grunts and grabs the hand touching the rock and struggles to pull it off. 

“See I told you she was weird” Alix says rather calmly for holding on to the door frame for dear life. “Admittedly I wasn’t thinking this but I’m still right and that’s all that matters”

Nathaniel heaves himself behind a statue to shield himself from the wind “Alix, go activate the akuma alarm I’ll-“

“Oh no you don’t, remember who was the hero here” Alix snaps dragging herself behind the statue. “You go activate the alarm, I’ll stop her” Alix starts moving towards Polly before Nath can respond. He groans and runs out of the room stopping in an area out of view from the cameras.

Duusu flies out of his pocket “you’re going to just leave her there?” She squeals in horror.

“She’s stubborn with Nathanial, but maybe she’ll listen to Paon” Nath responds tightening his ponytail and letting the miraculous gleam off the moonlight. 

“Duusu, feathers out” 

Polly grunts as the yellow light spreads from her eyes to around the rest of her body. Jalil slowly crawls his way over to her lying low to avoid being picked up by the wind. Chloe opens the purse and does a unzipping motion with her mouth, to her delight her mouth opens once again. She points her nubs at Polly’s hand “honey trap” she whispers creating a shot of honey that hardened around it.

Jalil pounces and grabs Polly; they land with him on top of her protectively. An evil laugh comes from behind them; Jalil turns to face the red genie standing like Polly was before he grabbed her. “It was a pleasure working with you Cinderella; I never would have dreamed you would have given me this.” The glow turns from yellow to red and the genie’s chains become visible “the spell of unbinding, my kind has sought after this spell ever since our imprisonment in those filthy lamps.” The chains glow then shatter into dust, the genie’s eyes glow and she shows off her shark teeth. Her form began to grow into a massive muscular monster “now I don’t have a mistress, I AM FREE!” With a catlike grin she makes a fist and moves to pound the two history nerds into dust.

Suddenly there’s a huge bang and a cannon ball smashes into the genie’s head. The genie howls in pain while Alix runs over to the two and gets them to their feet. “Did you seriously just fire the cannon?”

“What did you think I could throw the ball?” Alix says with a shrug. Jalil would have given a sarcastic comment about her spying but Polly was his main concern. She had gone numb with only her baby blue eyes moving with any speed. Jalil drags her out of the room as it crumbles from the genie’s size. 

A deep horrible laugh follows them and a giant hand blocks their exit. He turns and tries for another one that gets blocked by the other hand. “Poor Cinderella, only wanted to go to the ball” the giant genie coos with a smile full of shark teeth. She makes a grab for the girl only for Jalil to bravely throw a rock at her eye. The genie growls and moves to hit him.

“Hey why don’t you pick on someone your own size?” A blue blur suddenly knocks Jalil out of the way. The genie flinches for a second but then grins at Paon Bleu. The hero is bent low with his back feathers covering the two behind him. 

“I NO LONGER FEAR YOU CHILD OF MOON, YOUR MAGIC CAN NO LONGER TOUCH ME” the genie howls slapping Paon in between her hands like a bug. Paon groans and falls to the floor with a plop. The genie grabs his leg and throws him though the Medieval section like a ragdoll.

“She’s destroying priceless history” Jalil cries as she picks up Paon again and slams him into a bunch of Greek statues. 

“We have to do something, before Paon’s history” Alix says as Paon tries to fly away only to be yanked down by his feathers and thrown into the wall. 

Chrysalid stands in her room in her transformation pose “okay Ladybug I’m going to try it”.

“Alix loved being a superhero, she’ll be your champion again for sure” Ladybug says cheerfully while running across the rooftops towards the museum. 

“You sure you don’t need me?” Rena asks holding the earpiece while seated at the dog show. Cameras were flashing around her at the adorable dogs being displayed by their proud owners.

“We’ll call if we need backup, wouldn’t want to take you away from the Paris doggies” Ladybug chirps. “And don’t worry about the lady blog, I promise to get you some good shots for Alya”.

“They are pretty cute” Rena admits gasping as the costumed ones take the field. “Oh my fox there’s Rena rouge Shiba Inu” she coos making the other two giggle. 

Back at the museum Paon grabs the side of a museum map holding his abused side. Fatigue was seriously affecting his reaction times. The genie hits high and sends an avalanche of building down onto him, his ability to dodge is so slow he only dodges the first rock before he’s pinned under the concrete. The genie turns away from him to see Jalil trying to pull both Polly and Alix away from danger. Which is easier said than done. Polly has gone into shock and is transfixed on the genie’s rampage while Alix is in full “fight me” mode. The genie easily grabs Polly from the group and holds her like a little doll, “freedom truly is wonderful isn’t it?” she purrs.

“POLLY” Jalil yells charging towards the genie. Alix’s eye catches the lavender butterfly coming in though the broken ceiling and circle around them. It flies next to her watching Jalil jump onto the genie’s hand keeping Polly captive. Naturally the genie shakes him off sending him onto the floor with a meme worthy cry of pain. Alix smirks and points to him with her thumb “go help him before he really embarrasses himself, I got Paon.” Alix clicks her shoes together and her roller blades pop out, a birthday present from Max. She speeds over the fallen museum goods and starts to lift the smaller rocks off the blue hero.

The genie backhands Jalil into a pile of trash and turns her attention back to Polly. “You know I used a lot of power to grant your wish, I think you should repay the favor” Polly still has no reaction as the genie lifts her over her mouth.

Suddenly there’s a flash of light and a green figure jumps onto the genie’s hand. His fangs pierce into her flesh making her yowl and drop Polly into his arms. The genie growls at her meal being taken away, the new challenger held her tightly in the classic princess hold. He wore green Egyptian battle armour with scales and a gold chest. He had a thick snake tail attached to his lower back. He wore a helmet with a cobra design found on a Pharaoh and his hair was styled like a cobra’s hood. His glasses had been replaced with a green mask giving him the stylized Egyptian eye with a snake slit. “And who are you supposed to be?” the genie hisses. 

He pulls out his weapon which was a scepter with a golden cobra. “I am Cobra and you will not touch Polly” the genie chuckles at his seriousness. 

“Are you fast little snake?” she taunts thrusting her fist towards Alix who was helping Paon to his feet. A yo-yo wraps around her arm and pulls it the wall before it could hit. Ladybug lands in her usual superhero pose and flashes a smile Cobra’s way.

“Cobra, get the people to safety, Paon help me teach this genie a lesson” Ladybug orders spinning her yo-yo like a shield. 

“Give me the girl” The genie snaps reaching for Cobra. He super jumps out of the way, does a front flip and slams his tail into the giant rock blocking the exit. The rock cracks and shatters into dust. The people still trapped inside make a break for it while Ladybug and a tired Paon lead the genie away. Even Alix runs to the exit but not before grabbing Cobra and posing with him for a selfie. 

Cobra moves to give Polly to a paramedic but the genie interferes by firing a beam of fire between them. The flames reach to the ceiling making Cobra make the quick decision to carry her the other way. The genie wanted her so he went to the first place he could think of to hide her.

And that was the room with the giant sarcophagus. He places Polly inside and smiles softly holding her hand “you’ll be safe here, I promise”. Polly finally moves and nods slightly. Cobra closes the golden coffin leaving her not so alone in the dark. 

Ladybug grunts dodging the endless amount of junk the genie could find to throw at her. “Chat-uh Paon, help me out here” she cries to her teammate. Paon flies over to help but he’s clearly not as in sync with Ladybug as Chat is. The genie shoots a golden beam from behind her back and the beam bounces around the room. Paon gasps as it zips past his hair and hits Ladybug. 

“Oh flock” Paon whispers in horror seeing Ladybug had been turned into a golden statue. Chat was so going to kill him if he didn’t fix this.

“I lead her right to it” Pollen whispers tears starting to fall from her eyes “this is all my fault”. A small light came from her purse and numbly she opens it. 

Chloe’s mouth opens with a large gasp “finally I have had it with being a kwami; I can’t stand hiding in a bag all day that smells like gym socks.” Pollen wipes some tears from her eyes as Chloe continued to rant then shuts up once she got a good look at Pollen’s face. “You were corrupted by the genie, it wasn’t completely your fault”. 

“Cleopatra did everything to make sure the genie’s never found that spell and I lead one right to it. I should never have let my emotions overtake my logic” 

“Hey I let my emotions overtake my logic all the time and that doesn’t always backfire” Chloe chirps as if that would cheer Pollen up. Pollen just stared blankly at her. Chloe’s face falls “but um…when it does it really backfires…I let my temper get the best of me and now I’ve hurt my staff and my best friends. I need to make it up to them, but first I need to stop a genie full of hot air.” Pollen wipes her eyes makeup remaining perfect since it was waterproof, something Chloe noted to use herself later. 

“Pollen stingers out”

There’s an awkward three seconds of nothing happening, Pollen moves a hand to the comb in her hair and gasps. “I’m the wielder now” she says looking up at Chloe whose face had paled. 

“Now wait a minute I-“Chloe squeaks only for Pollen to cut her off.

“Chloe stingers out”

Chloe feels a tug towards the comb and grabs hold of the purse. “WORST DAY EVER” she manages to scream before she’s pulled into the miraculous. 

Pollen laughs as the magic she normally supplied washed over her. She swipes her hand across her face creating a yellow mask with black Egyptian eyeliner. She puts her hands on her hips as the costume rushed down her neck with a yellow dust. The costume was like Cleopatra’s with the gold and wings that sparkled like crystal. Pollen closed her eyes and put her hands together as a light glowed from her miraculous and gave her hair golden highlights. She holds a tiny version of the honey dipper in one hand and the top in the other, she poses like a pharaoh but with a huge smile on her face. 

“Best day ever” Pollen squeals stepping out of the coffin and flying towards the battle.

“This was supposed to be my day off” Paon snaps finally awake enough to dodge a beam of fire the genie shot at him. The genie picks up a relic tank of WW2 and chucks it at him, Paon spins with his fans to slice though it but a golden figure catches it and places it gently on the ground.

“Let’s try not to destroy priceless historic artifacts” the bee girl states smiling at him.

“You’re not Queen Bee” Paon flicks his fans out defensively. 

“You’re correct” the girl says flicking her hair and swinging her top to catch a jar recklessly thrown and putting it down gently. “I am the Golden Bee, I’m standing in for Queen Bee tonight” she says making Paon’s eyebrow rise. The genie attacks with a back hand and the two jumps to avoid it, Gold lands on her arm and plunges a heel into the flesh. The genie roars in pain pulling the arm back to cradle, Gold flies off and lands next to Cobra. “I know how we can stop her but I need your help.”

“What makes you think we should trust you? My Bee would never give her powers up for no reason” Paon says jumping between the two.

Gold can’t stop the smirk at Paon’s nickname for her wielder. She leans into Paon’s ear and whispers something. Paon’s face turns bright red and Cobra frowns straining to hear.

“What is she saying?” Chrysalid whispers making the butterfly mask glow in the most unsubtle way possible

“I don’t know, snakes aren’t known for their hearing” Cobra hisses back.

Gold steps back and Paon flaps one fan in front of his face with a scowl “now here’s my plan” she announces proudly. 

“I’m getting real sick of being the decoy dodo” Paon mutters launching towards the genie. She moves to slap him and he drops to avoid it. “Come on you even trying?” he taunts running into the dinosaur part of the museum. The genie takes the bait and flies after him leaving the other two to do their part of the plan.

Cobra sighs looking at the mountains of broken rock and shattered items in the back room. “We’re never going to sort through this in time”.

“Yes we can, I’ll organize and you start putting the pieces together” Gold says placing a hand on his back. She bends down and picks up a piece of stone that had Cleopatra’s head drawn on it. Cobra takes it from her and the two begin sorting through the mess. 

Paon swoops under a long neck followed by the genie. Her massive form knocks it down and it crashes into several other displays. Paon lands on a pterodactyl hanging from the ceiling and swipes the wires holding it up. The genie smirks and makes her form turn into smoke so the skeleton passed straight though her. Paon curses as she solidifies and grabs him “I’m going to consume you child of moon, I will take revenge for all the trouble your kind has given creatures like me”.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about lady” Paon gasps as she dangles him from his back feathers. With flexibility that could make an ordinary person cringe he twists and slices her fingers with his fans. She cries out in pain and he quickly gets himself as far away from her mouth as possible.

“Perfect, hold it like that” Gold orders as Cobra puts a large part of the stone scroll in place. She rubs her hands together so fast they’re a blur, honey appears in her palms and she coats the stone to keep it in place. With the final piece inserted the stone glows and the cracks seal shut leaving it in almost perfect condition. Gold laughs in triumph and they do a fist bump. 

A huge crash makes them jump and look towards where the door used to be. Paon lay on the floor dazed and the genie was breaking away the wall to get in. 

The butterfly mask appears over Cobra’s face “Cobra, you need to protect Gold while she reads the spell” Chrysalid orders calmly.

“That I can do” Cobra says showing off his fangs. Gold starts to translate the spell silently to herself while he charges and Paon style whips the genie with his tail. He lands and uses his scepter to deflect the fireballs she sent at him. 

Gold places both hands on the stone and starts to speak her ancient language out loud. The stone glows blue this time and she removes her hands to face the genie. “Miraculous Bee secret art. Ribbon submission” her voice commands the attention of the room. “Your freedom has endangered the lives of many and will not be tolerated” the golden strips in her hair glow blue and reach towards the genie. The genie realizes what’s happening and tries to flee only to be attacked from behind by Cobra and Paon. The hair wraps around the genie’s arms making her roar. “I subject you back to your chains genie, back to your lamp. YOU WILL SUBMIT.”

“NOOOOOO” the genie wails as her form shrinks back into her normal form. The boys can only watch in awe as the hair pulls back leaving foggy chains around her arms. The genie collapses to the ground and stares at her chains until they disappear from view. Gold stops glowing and summons her dipper to her hands. 

“I gave you that body…” the genie gasps voice raw with anger “and I will take it away.” She points her finger threateningly at Gold and Paon taps her on the shoulder.

She turns to greet an arrow pointing at her nose “let’s finish this so Ladybug can fix this.”  
Before he can fire the genie changes into smoke and bolts though the open roof. Paon curses and follows after her. 

The moon is out just enough to give him a clear view of the genie fleeing over Paris. His muscles ache from the repeated beatings but he pushes on knowing his feather heal could fix it. The genie makes the damning move to fly over the Seine and Paon sees his chance.

“ROYAL STRIKE” Paon slams his fans forward creating a wind powerful enough that the genie crashes into the water below. Paon shoots after moving so fast he was a blur.

“I’m telling you Oma he’s got nothing, the only magic on him is from the kwami” Charlotte says into a cellphone standing on a rooftop.

“It makes no sense, the blood moon smiled on him” Oma states sounding baffled.

“Well maybe you were mistaken, because that boy has no spar….” She trails off as the entire Seine lights up in a beautiful blue light. Like the northern lights had fallen into it. “I’m going to have to call you back” she says quickly then hangs up.

Cobra and Gold cheer as the blue arrow shoots into the sky looking like reverse lightning and explodes into a rain of feathers. One lands on the gold Ladybug and she comes back to life with a gasp. “And the rest is hiss-tory” Cobra jokes then the butterfly flies out of his necklace. “Oh come on it wasn’t that bad” he calls after the fleeing bug.

Gold giggles and puts a hand on his shoulders “I should get going, nice working with you” she flies down the front steps then freezes at his voice.

“Sure you don’t want to stay for that smoothie?” Gold turns back to him with her mouth ajar. Jalil chuckles and scratches behind his head “I know it’s you Polly, no one is as incredible as you.”

Gold slips behind a lion statue out front and after a bright yellow flash Polly pops back out. She climbs the steps catching the clock above the building stating it was two minutes to midnight. Jalil smiles warmly at her and she felt her throat tighten. “Jalil I’m sorry but I can’t” she says not daring to look at the hurt that passed his face.

“That’s okay I uh…I thought you were having a good time”

“I did, I did. This has been the best day of my life” Polly grabs his hands tightly. “But you heard the genie didn’t you?”

“Polly” Jalil chuckles and pushes some hair out of her face “if the genie made you beautiful or something it doesn’t matter to me. I fell in love with you over text messages, I like you for you.” 

“It’s not that” Pollen feels tears start to fall again. “Jalil I’m not human, I’m a kwami” she forced herself to look him in the eye. He looked dumbstruck, completely lost at what to say.

“What’s a kwami?’ he says at last.

“A creature that gives humans powers, I give Queen Bee hers…” she trails off as a beep from his watch signals midnight. A tingling feeling comes from her fingers and she whimpers seeing it start to dissolve into glowing dust. She looks up at Jalil “can I do one last human thing before I have to go?” 

Jalil puts a hand behind her back “of course-“Pollen jumps up and places her lips on his. The kiss lasts five seconds then he feels her presence vanish. He opens his eyes to see she was gone, not even a speck of dust to reveal she was ever there. 

From behind the lion statue Pollen back in her kwami form watches numbly as Jalil stares down at the ground. “Pollen…” Chloe starts holding out her hand for Pollen to land on.

“It’s for the best, let’s go home” Pollen says quickly. “I’m sure you want me to get right to work on reorganizing your closet.” 

“Pollen stingers out” Chloe sighs and sucks the emotionally drained kwami inside her miraculous. Jalil’s eyes widen at the yellow flash and calls to Queen Bee as she flies into view. The hero stops mid flight and lands in front of him.

“Was she…real?” Jalil asks quietly.

Bee chuckles “yes she is and I hope this discovery won’t taint your friendship. She’s really fond of you.”

Jalil sighs and drags a hand though his hair “it’s just like me to fall in love with someone who’s not even human.” 

Bee shrugs with another chuckle “can we trust you to keep her a secret? Pollen would totally freak if kwami were in the news tomorrow.”

Jalil hesitates for a second; he had just been given proof of magical creatures and even kissed one. “Her name is Pollen?” he asks and Bee nods slightly, her eyes starting to grow nervous. Jalil smiled to himself “it suits her.” he stuck his hand out “you can trust me, never saw a thing” Bee relaxes and takes his hand to shake. The miraculous ladybug swoops around them and repairs the damage done, all except what had been done to the river.

The next day Pollen was working away with writing notes to replace the clothing and makeup she had destroyed. She had several piles of clothing listed with a sticky note that read “too small” “haven’t been worn in years” and “please stop buying Queen Bee merchandise we’re trying to keep a secret identity here.” She’s about to write something with her crayon only for Chloe to open the door and step inside “so how goes it?” she asks in a casual way that Pollen picked up as suspicious.

“It’s going fine my queen, I’ve ordered the necessary items to replace the damaged ones and have cleaned up that messy horror of your makeup chests.” Pollen says all business.

“Come outside for a bit, you look like you could use the fresh air” Chloe orders gesturing to the balcony with her head. Pollen squints sensing something was up but follows her without a peep. 

Pollen gasps at what she sees out there, a decent sized greenhouse stood in the sun with many plants already inside. “I figured you needed your own space so I got you one” Chloe says proudly. Pollen stares for a solid three seconds then zips inside. There was lavender, roses, spider plant, honey suckle and even sunflowers growing inside the greenhouse. It had its own irrigation but Pollen spotted a tiny watering can for her to use when she felt like watering. Pollen feels tears come to her eyes and laughs overwhelmed with joy. 

“Chloe, this is wonderful. Thank you” Pollen cries as Chloe steps into the greenhouse. Pollen throws herself on Chloe to give her the biggest hug she could manage.

“It’s nothing really, now I’m just going to leave this here” Chloe pulls her phone out from her pocket and places it on one of the benches. The Jalil text tone buzzes and Pollen catches a glimpse of the dozens of texts he had already sent. As well as one from Jean stating Sabrina was in position. “Now I got to catch Sabrina, later” Chloe flashes a finger gun on her way out, Chat starting to rub off on her.

Pollen hesitates but slowly moves to take the phone and scroll though the messages. Some were about the night before, questions about her and whatnot. But most were pleads for her to answer. Pollen feels her eyes water reading the most recent text.

{Pollen, your friendship means more to me than anything. I don’t care that you’re technically not human; to me you’re still this incredible girl who loves Egyptian history. I don’t want to stop talking with you. I promise to not pry about who you are or about Queen Bee (ignore my previous messages). Please just answer me.}

Pollen knew she should leave it alone, she’d been selfish enough making a friendship with him in the first place. She’d been selfish to allow feelings to develop when there was no chance of anything coming of it. She’d kissed him for honey's sake, how selfish can you get? But something burned in her to continue, if it gave her joy was it really wrong to be selfish?

{Hello Jalil, I see my wielder gave you my real name. I want to continue this friendship as well; you are my best friend next to Queen Bee. ;)}

Chloe skipped steps as she ran down the stairs, she would have taken the elevator but the stupid thing had broken down yesterday. She finally reaches the lobby and spots Amy looking like she was trying not to cry. Chloe screeches to a stop “AMY” she yells making the woman jump. “I’d like you to come in tomorrow, I’ll provide a bonus” Chloe speaks breathlessly then races past the stunned woman. 

Jean holds the door open for her “Sabrina is to your left” he says with a hint of amusement in his voice. Chloe runs that direction at full speed. Jean chuckles under his breath watching her go, “that’s my girl”. 

“SABRINA” Chloe shouts running up to her friend. Sabrina thankfully stops and turns around. Chloe stops in front of her and bends forward gasping for air. After a minute or two of panting Chloe straightens up “Sabrina I just needed to say I’m-“

“Sorry? You’re sorry? Cut the garbage Chloe I’m sick of it” Sabrina snaps making Chloe freeze in place. “I’m so sick of you hurting me then pretending to apologise then doing it over and over again. I’m done.”

“What are you…” Chloe gasps brain not registering what was happening. This wasn’t how this was supposed to go.

“We’re no longer friends Chloe. Goodbye” Sabrina says coldly. She adjusts her new hairband and continues walking. At first she holds her head up high but is starts to crack. By the time she’s reached the corner she’s full on sobbing. Chloe on the other hand hasn’t moved, she might have been there all day had Jean not come out to see what was wrong.


	11. Avvina you greedy gut

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to update my other story but then I go a comment and thus inspiration for the next chapter here. I am actually quite happy with how this one turned out.  
> Also can anyone tell me what the heck Mayura's power was? I wanted to try and have Paon use it but I have honestly no idea what the heck happened. It's likely because when I watched it it was in French and I was too busy admiring how pretty the feathers looked.

Chapter 11 Avvina you greedy gut

Forks clatter against plates in the Raincomplix household. The family of three sat together in a dining room covered in houseplants. Sabrina poked at her chicken while her father inhaled his food. He reaches for another drumstick only for his walkie-talkie on his belt to go off. He groans and stands up “great dinner as always dear, I’d stick around for dessert but duty calls”.

“I’ll be sure to save you some for lunch tomorrow” his wife states leaning in for a kiss. Roger goes to plant a kiss on Sabrina’s head only for her new hairband to poke him in the eye. He jerks back with a yelp and Sabrina covers the hairband protectively. It was a nice silver band with two bumps on it shaped kind of like tiny devil horns. 

“Did you get that for your birthday?” Roger asks rubbing his eye. 

“Yeah…at the dog show, it was a gift to me from me” Sabrina blabs with a nervous giggle. 

“Well it’s very nice” Roger says kissing her cheek this time and heading out the door. 

Sabrina forced a bite of salad as her mom began clearing the table. With practiced ease she puts the leftovers in containers and puts them in the fridge. From there she pulls out a slice of chocolate cake she had made a few days ago and sits back at the table. “So you and Chloe had a fight” she starts making Sabrina choke on her water.

“…kinda” Sabrina mumbles looking down at her mostly untouched dinner. She should have known her mom would sniff it out. The only times she didn’t finish her dinner was because she and Chloe had a fight. “I decided I had had enough, we’re not friends anymore”.

Her mom smiles proudly, really that should make Sabrina believe she did the right thing. But she couldn’t stop thinking of Chloe’s face as she walked away; she had put that hurt there. “That’s a tough decision to make” her mom says placing a hand on Sabrina’s back “but the right choice isn’t always easy.” 

Sabrina nods and takes her dinner to the kitchen, making sure to put it in the container marked with her name.  
“I’m just going to go to bed early” she announces glancing back to make sure her mom was occupied with the cake and shoves an apple in her pocket

Once Sabrina had closed the door behind her she slides down the wood with a groan. Her lavender painted room made for a calming environment or so her mom had stated. It also contained a reading chair by the window and a huge bookcase next to the bed. A dark blue blob zips out from her pocket making her jump. “I think you did a great job today sugar pop, you defeated that yellow dragon before she could even burn the village” the blob or rather the bat spoke with a warm cheerful voice. Its voice wasn’t nearly as squeaky as some kwami which was a plus. 

“But I feel awful Wixxin, I should just apologise” Sabrina pulls out her phone and her thumb hovers over Chloe’s name in the contacts. She could feel Wixxin’s eyes on her, waiting for her to decide. Her mind replayed Chloe’s outburst and her apparent apology. Could she really go through that again? Did she want to? She put the phone down and sighed loudly. 

“Sugar you told me yourself that Chloe always does this to you, you don’t have to cater to her” Wixxin flies over to her lap and grabs one of her fingers. “As a wielder of gluttony you always bite off more than you can chew. You have to take care of yourself too.”

“It’s absolutely crazy” Sabrina mutters rubbing a horn on the headband anxiously. “You must have made a mistake, there’s no way I can be a superhero.”

Wixxin frowned and shook her head “I don’t make mistakes sugar, us meeting was no accident.” 

Sabrina’s mouth forms a tight line as she thinks back to the night before. Her father had dropped everything in order to accompany her to the dog show, even wearing a shirt with Carapace to go with her Rena shirt. Sabrina was outside the restrooms waiting for him to finish. She leaned against the cold stone of the building listening to the mumbled music coming from the dog show tent. She checks her watch to see they had five minutes before break was over and the judges began handing out prizes. She was really hoping Rena would sign something for her for her birthday. She’s brought out of her thoughts by the sound of metal trash cans falling over. She glances back to the bathroom then goes to investigate.

“Hello?” she calls into the sketchy back of the building. A garbage can rattles again and she slowly approaches it. Before she can chicken out she grabs the lid and yanks it off. A blobby bat flies out followed by cat intent on turning it into its prize. Sabrina screams and falls on her behind. She watches the poor bat try to dodge the cat’s claws and moves in. “shoo, shoo” she hisses at the cat pushing it away from the bat. The cat glares at her but decides to move on, leaving with its head held high. Sabrina sighs in relief and turns her attention back to the bat. 

To her surprise the bat is standing on its nubby legs and staring at her with a warm smile. Sabrina wasn’t well versed in bat biology but she knew most bats couldn’t stand on their legs like that. Nor did they have big purple eyes like the one in front of her did. “It’s nice to finally meet you sugar, my name is Wixxin” Sabrina falls back in surprise. 

Back in the present Wixxin had flown to the window, “this is my favorite part of the day.” Sabrina walks over to see the sun slowly making its way down. “The sun is beautiful, but I prefer the moon” Wixxin continues then grins widely at Sabrina pulling out the apple. Wixxin sinks her tiny fangs into it and the apple shrivels into a husk. 

“Did you know people have walked on the moon?” Sabrina asks with a cheeky smirk. 

Wixxin gasps dramatically “for real sugar bun? How exciting that must have been, please tell me more.” Sabrina always being one to please happily tells the kwami about the space race and brought up pictures on her phone for Wixxin to see. 

Wixxin does a spin in the air “oh if only I could have seen it in real time.” Her face falls and she looks to the ground. 

Sabrina picks the bat up and leans against the window frame “why don’t we go to the museum tomorrow? You can read up on thousands of years of history and see items from those times.”

Wixxin looks up with a small smile “is that what you want to do?”

Sabrina nods “yea it will be fun.”

Wixxin glances at her miraculous but thinks better than to push. Purrde had ordered them to find new wielders for protection, that didn’t mean they had to transform and fight the baddies. No matter how much she wished to bond with a human again she would have to remain hopeful. 

 

Ladybug frowned in thought looking down at the Seine, the water looked impressively clean. So clean that even with the dying sunlight she could see parts of the bottom. Paon should have felt like a kid in trouble, Ladybug never was this quiet unless she was deadly serious. But right now he felt like Queen Bee had asked to be his girlfriend and T.A had offered him a partnership. He was bouncing slightly and humming a song while he waited for her to speak.

“According to Tikki the peacock cure should have no effect on non-living things, which includes bodies of water” Ladybug says at last turning to him.

“I don’t know what to tell ya, I just brought out the arrow and then boom-” Paon threw his arms out “-big light show.” He returns to his little dance and Ladybug sticks her chin out in a cute pout. 

“Could you please take this more seriously? We don’t know what you did or even if it’s a good thing.”

“I am” Paon defends making an effort to stop dancing “I’ve just been in a great mood since doing this, I feel like I’m king of the world.” He does a little spin and goes back to humming his song.

Ladybug doesn’t say anything but leans in to use the latest feature in her yo-yo, a water tester. She takes a sample and sure enough the water is clean, too clean. “There’s not even a trace of pollution in here, this doesn’t make any sense.” 

Behind her Paon’s smile falters and he stumbles slightly. “Hey Ladybug…” he mumbles looking over to her only to see two fuzzy versions of her. He tries to take a step towards her only for the concrete to suddenly smack into his face. 

Ladybug hears a thud and turns to see Paon had collapsed on the ground “Paon, hey, you okay?” she cries rushing over to him and turning him onto his back. She was no expert of first aid but she could tell his breathing was coming in too slowly. Her eyes widened as she tried to think of what to do, should she start CPR? Call an ambulance? Use the yo-yo?” 

Tikki comes to her aid and gives her an image of her room and the memory of her healing Carapace after the Masquerade attack. “Okay right” Ladybug squeaks grabbing the surprisingly light bird and swinging them both towards her bakery.

Once inside her room Ladybug follows the procedure Wayzz had taught her. Her fingers start to shake when after the third time Paon doesn’t stir, in fact he was getting worse. His skin was pale and hot to the touch. Ladybug’s heart sank as each breath came out shaky and stressed. “Tikki somethings wrong” Ladybug cries covering her mouth with her hands. Tikki tried to send her comforting images but it’s not enough, she needed to see her. “Tikki spots off”.

Tikki flies out of the earrings and Marinette presses her hand against his chest trying to get a heartbeat “What am I doing wrong? Why isn’t he getting better?”

Tikki frowns and puts a hand on Paon’s forehead, her nub glows slightly and Paon gasps in pain. Tikki jerks back surprised “he has positive energy poisoning.”

“Positive energy poisoning, what does that mean Tikki what do I do?” Marinette whimpers shaking. 

“Every living life form needs to have balance of negative and positive energies” Tikki explains quickly. “It doesn’t happen often but if a person has too much of either energy they can get really sick, it must have happened when he purified the water while he was in it.” 

“Is he dying Tikki? Oh god how did I not notice he was sick” Marinette whimpers then her eyes light up with an idea. “Isn’t demons blood super negative? Maybe we could use that to even him out.”

“NO” Tikki cries flying in front of her face “maybe it could but demons blood is too dangerous. The last time a miraculous wielder used it…” Tikki paused as a memory as vile as old blood flooded her mind. “It doesn’t matter; all we can do is wait and hope he evens himself out.” Tikki looks back to Paon who didn’t show any signs of improving. 

“I guess I’m having a sick day tomorrow” Marinette mutters finding a blanket to cover Paon’s body with and propping his head up. 

Meanwhile in another bedroom another scene is taking place, that being Lila and Tutti having yet another argument. “What do you mean Paon can’t help me? He said so himself that he heals marks like this” Lila growled lifting her pajama shirt to point at the black mark. 

Tutti rolled his eyes “I told you twice now, that’ a mark of ownership. You stupidly sold your soul to that demon and that’s its mark stating that you’re its property. I can’t believe you would be so foolish” Tutti scratched at his beak in frustration.

Lila’s face was turning red “I’m not stupid, besides I’m a minor so contracts shouldn’t count.”

“Do you really think demons care about your age?” Tutti deadpans crossing his nubs. “Generally after receiving the mark you have five years unless stated otherwise. From what I’ve seen Paon removes the corruption from the soul and Ladybug repairs the damage done by evil. A mark of ownership doesn’t harm the soul and Ladybug’s charm didn’t count it as evil. Face it Lila, you’re going to become that demons meat puppet in five years.”

Lila bit her lip then her eyes lit up “what if we hunt down the demon that did this and kill him? Then there’s no ownership because the owner will be dead.”

Tutti flinches slightly at the mad look of desperation in her eyes, she’d be like twenty one by the time the demon came for her. Wasn’t that a long life for a human? “I mean I guess it could work, but finding one demon is like a finding a needle in a haystack. It will take forever” he states throwing his nubs out. 

“Not if we burn the hay” Lila says darkly and clenches her fist. “Let’s start by the docks; the news said there was demon activity there.”

“Which the knights of sin have been taking care of, something you would have known if you were with them” 

Lila blew a raspberry “yeah, yeah whatever.” 

“Tutti, talons out”

A few minutes’ later Avvina lands at the building where the fishing boats were docked. She gags at the smell of fish and plugs her nose. She pulls a small hoop out and approaches a large storage shed, the door squeaks loudly as she steps inside. A gross sight greets her; black goo had splattered on boxes and the floor. She walks past some goo trapped in a shard of ice and another that was just ash on the ground. Raion and Gorm had been here.

She dips the hoop into some of the goo and holds it out in front of her face. Now that she thought about it she didn’t even know what her demon looked like, he was inside a human the last time she saw him. Maybe if she found the human he possessed she could get some better Intel, but first she’d have to find the human. And to do that she’d have to search hospital records or dare she say ask one of the miraculous hero’s. Avvina stuck her chin out in a pout.  
This was turning into way too much work, was it too much to ask for everything to fall into place for her? Why couldn’t she do nothing but watch TV and have Paris no the world bend over backwards to please her. For a moment she’s lost in a fantasy where she’s the star of a parade with everyone screaming her name. Paon, Chat and Adrien are fighting trying to get her attention and Rena is being used as a footrest. 

Suddenly there’s a loud sigh from deeper inside and Avvina jumps in fright. Cautiously she peeks around some boxes and spots a familiar fox crouched in front of a big glob of goo.

Rena held a test tube and stuck it in the goo. She traps it with a cork and her ears twitch hearing footsteps. The fish smell combined with the tar like smell from the goo was strong but Rena’s nose picked up something else. She pulled out her flute and sniffed the air, someone was here. 

Rena bends low and pounces into the air, Avvina didn’t have a chance to react before she’s pinned under the fox’s weight. Rena’s game face turns into realization and she gets off “oh hey you’re that vulture girl, uh Avvina right?”

Avvina once again ignores the hand offered to her and dusts herself off looking less than pleased. “Yes that’s me fox, what are you doing?” 

Rena frowned at the harsh way the girl called her fox, “I’m obtaining samples of this demon goo in hopes that Ladybug can figure out where they’re coming from and why they’re coming here.” She held up the test tube then placed it in her back pocket then her eyes lit up “wait…Lila stated that you knew where they were coming from right?” Avvina took a step back as Rena forgot what personal space was “come on girl spill” 

“I uh-“Avvina stutters eyes darting around for the correct fib. She just had to make something up in front of the mistress of illusion, no biggie. “-um I can’t tell you in detail but they’re like coming from a…portal?” 

Rena’s eyebrows rise in suspicion, Avvina always hated that the real fox miraculous had freaking eyebrows on top of her mask. In fact her entire outfit was stupid compared to hers as Volpina. “If too many people knew about the portal the demons will change its location so it has to be a secret.” Avvina continued putting on her confidence act “so sorry fox but my lips are sealed” she does a zipping action over her lips and smirks.

Rena’s frown deepens, despite the fish and tar she could smell the bull. “What are you doing here then? Is this “portal” somewhere near here?” 

Avvina shrugs making Rena’s ear twitch annoyed. “I’ll just be going now fox, good luck with ladybug” if she said fox with distaste she said ladybug like she was garbage. And that is something Rena would not stand for.

“You have some nerve talking about Ladybug like that, if it wasn’t for her this city would have been taken over by Hawk moth.” Rena snaps stepping in front of Avvina to prevent her from leaving. 

Avvina laughs rudely “if it wasn’t for Lady-trash Hawk moth wouldn’t have attacked at all. He was after her miraculous remember” Avvina pushed Rena with one hand putting her hand directly on her miraculous. Rena naturally puts her hand over it protectively. 

“I’m not going to lie Avvina, you may be right. But the first akuma attack happened before Ladybug even appeared, and without her we never would have been able to cure the damage he caused.”

“What about Paon?” Avvina snapped crossing her arms. “He can cure the damage just fine and he’s way better than Ladybug.”

“Paon can’t fix the buildings, and his situation was…complicated. He didn’t appear until Hawk moth had been attacking for years” Rena states deciding against telling Avvina about Paon’s less then fantastic backstory.

“Well you know what?” Avvina purred making a face that was begging to be slapped. 

“What?” Rena echo’s tapping her flute against her leg, trying to remind herself not to attack another superhero for talking crap about Ladybug again. The first time Chat had been under an akuma’s spell but she was still scolded for throwing him though a bus. 

“I asked Paon to be my partner the other night and he couldn’t have agreed faster. I’m sure he’s looking for the best moment to tell Lady-trash off and join a real superhero like me.”

Rena growled, she actually growled like an animal. Her eyes flashed and Avvina felt her confidence slip “Ladybug is ten times the hero you will ever be.” Rena stepped towards Avvina making her back up “and there’s no way Paon would agree to be your partner. Paon is loyal and hardworking; he’d never abandon the team for a lazy slob like you.”

Rena had her hands on her hips now “and I know you’re lying about the portal, my nose can detect even the slightest whiff of bull crud.” She tapped her nose then crossed her arms “you have some nerve trying to lie to me girl.” 

“IT’S TRUE!” Avvina shouted then remembered that the victim technique wouldn’t work while she was in superhero form. 

Rena huffed and opened her flute’s phone option “why don’t I call him here and he’ll clear this up” she took a few steps back and started searching though her contacts. 

“NO I’m telling you he’s ALL MINE!” Avvina panics and chucks her hoop at Rena meaning to hit her phone away like she did with Paon. But it hits Rena head on and she’s enveloped in an orange light. Avvina curses and rushes to her aid “oh crap, are you okay?”

Rena opens her eyes, which had turned a bright green like Avvina’s “your fox is fine Avvina, is there anything I can do to please you?”

Avvina’s jaw drops as Rena gets on her knees and looks up at her like she was the world. “What do you mean my fox?” she blurts staring Rena down, what kind of trick was this?

Rena chuckles and points to her neck, on top of her necklace was the golden hoop wrapped around like a collar. In the front covering her miraculous were several tiny hoops like Avvina’s miraculous. “I belong to you Avvina; I’ll do whatever you want me to” Rena states as if that was obvious.

Avvina raises a brow under her mask “anything?” she mutters scratching her chin. “Stand on your head and stick your tongue out” she orders suddenly and Rena without hesitation does so. “Stand up, jump on one leg and pretend to be a fish” Avvina laughs as Rena does so looking absolutely foolish. She had a horrible smirk as she thought up the perfect thing to test if Rena was faking “okay Rena, reveal who you are to me under the mask”

Rena makes underwater blubs and Avvina rolls her eyes “you’re not a fish anymore” she snaps.

Rena stops and smiles warmly “Trixx let’s land” as soon as the words are spoken Rena’s body is swallowed in an orange light again. Avvina sees the kwami fly out with a yelp and turns her attention to the girl with glasses. “I’m Alya Cesaire”.

Avvina’s expression drops “who?” 

“I’m the blogger behind the lady blog, president of the ladybug fan club” Alya announces and Trixx screams in horror.

“What the FOX” Trixx cries flying into Alya’s face and waving his paws to get her attention. Alya doesn’t even blink, Trixx turns back to Avvina with the harshest glare he could muster “what did you do to her ugly?”

Avvina pauses “what did I do?” she mutters looking at the hoop still around Alya’s neck. Her eyes widen “I used my power on her…but my miraculous isn’t losing power” she glances around and spots the demon goo. “My hoop had the demon goo on it, I can use my power more than once with this stuff.”

Trixx tugged on the collar but it wouldn’t budge “let my wielder go” he orders sternly. 

“As if” Avvina purrs plucking the kwami off and flicking him into a pile of goo “I think I just found a way to get what I want.” Trixx’s head pops out and he gags on the goo in his mouth. Avvina turns to Alya and circles around her “now my little fox, you’ll do anything I say right?”

“Yes Avvina” 

“Good” Avvina throws her arm over Alya’s shoulders “I want you to do some research into Masquerade, find out who she is and see if you can get any info on the demon that possessed her.”

“I can do that” Alya nods cutely.

“I also want you to track down the knights of sin, I think they require a new leader” Avvina takes out another hoop and waves it teasingly in front of Alya.

“Yes Avvina” Alya nods again. Trixx pounces intending to scratch Avvina’s face off but he’s slapped away easily.

“Oh and one more thing, call me mistress.”

“Yes Mistress” Alya says doing a small bow. Avvina’s smile would have looked the same on a super villain; she orders Alya to go home and get to work. Alya transforms back into Rena and flies out without another word. 

Avvina sticks her chest out in pride and walks out of the fishy shed having completely forgotten why she was there in the first place. She holds up another hoop covered in the demon goo and chuckles to herself, who would be next? 

The next morning Sabrina walks out of the house with a determined look in her eyes. Once she checked that the coast was clear she opens her chest pocket and Wixxin sticks her head out with Sabrina’s cell phone in her grasp. “These boxes are fascinating, how did humans ever get the fay to work them?”

“The fay” Sabrina echo’s looking at Wixxin like she was crazy. Then again she was walking with a tiny god who could give super powers, maybe the fay existing wasn’t too farfetched. “I’m not sure” she says with a forced shrug “maybe the museum has some answers.” Wixxin squeals in excitement as she starts the walk up the steps to the grand museum. 

Later in the Cesaire household Alya hears a ringing of a bell and hurries up to her room, inside Avvina was waiting on a throne she had made out of Alya’s computer chair. There was a plate of snacks beside her and an empty cup of orange juice. “Would you be a dear and fill this up for me? It’s so incredibly hot in this costume” Avvina moans poking the glass. 

“Anything for my mistress” Alya chirps taking the glass and heading back down. 

Avvina sighs and checks her phone for updates. Throughout the night she had placed her collars on a few more people. She now had quite the fan club boasting her name and damning Ladybug’s, her favorite pizza place now would give her anything she wanted free of charge. Her rival was now her precious slave, Alya’s boyfriend Nino was put to work making her a theme song and her sweet, sweet Adrien was going to be her adoring boyfriend…once she found him. She chuckles and takes a bite out of a strawberry, life was good. 

If it wasn’t for the costume “why must this stupid thing be so hot?”

“Why don’t you drop it and leave my holder alone” Trixx snaps flying out of nowhere into Avvina’s face. Avvina cries out and falls out of her chair only somewhat improving Trixx’s mood. 

Avvina growls and jabs a finger at him “you watch your tone, so long as I control your wielder I control you.” 

“You think I’m scared of you?” Trixx counters glaring her down “this isn’t the first time the fox has faced the vulture of greed. And believe me girlfriend you are nothing compared to the thief that robbed an entire town.”

“You should be scared” Avvina hisses putting her hands on her hips. “Because once she’s done with her research I’m going to take your miraculous and make it mine as it should be.”

Another kwami would have flinched, become terrified. Tikki would have demanded they listen to reason. Duusu would have cried. But not Trixx, Trixx had faced one too many tricksters in his past. From the pied piper to the ninja who both fought with and against Tentomushi in feudal Japan. Trixx could see right through this girl “so why haven’t you taken it already? Clearly you are jealous of Rena’s power.” He flies in close to her face “drop the confidence act; I know you’re hiding something.” 

Avvina’s face paled and her hands went towards her earrings. Trixx moved to slap them away but Alya returned with the orange juice. Avvina batted him away while he was distracted and chugged the juice greedily. She wipes her mouth and takes the phone Alya held up to her “the knights have been sighted giving rides over the Seine” Alya announces. 

Avvina evilly grinned “suit up Alya; I’m going to make that lion jump though my hoops.”

Gorm and a kid beside him cheer as he does a back flip with the guitar trailing water behind them. They spin several times in the air then nosedive into the river. The two emerge unharmed and he puts the kid safely on the shore. A chorus of “me next, me next” cries from the crowd of younger kids. 

“This is a waste of time” Raion growls leaning against a wall in the shade. Gorm bent down as the kid Marionette sometimes babysits approached him and whispered something in his ear. Gorm nodded and she jumps on his back for the ride. They do a variety of skateboarding tricks and Manon even does a “look ma no hands”.

“Come on Raion, they’re having so much fun” Licorne says dipping her horn into bubble fluid. She blows on the tip and large bubbles come out the other side. Kids were laughing and chasing after them. 

Raion rolls her eyes and crosses her arms. “Uh excuse me miss lion?” A small voice says and she looks down to see a kid who had to be about five. In one hand he had a hot dog wiener on a stick “could you warm this up for me?”

Raion blinks confused “uh sure?’ she heats her claws up and he holds his snack over it until it was nice and toasty.

“Thanks miss lion” the kid squeaks running off to wait his turn for Gorm guitar ride. 

Raion’s ears had shyly flattened to her head when Licorne suddenly grabs her into a tight hug. “You’re a human barbeque; I’m totally bringing burgers for next patrol oh and marshmallows.”

“That’s not what our powers are for” Raion cries trying in vain to free herself from her grip. Licorne had no intention of letting go and laughed at Raion’s efforts.

“It’s Rena Rouge” one kid cries out and both girls scramble to look professional. 

“And the fabulous Avvina” Avvina adds as the two of them land in front of the group. 

“Who?” one kid blurts, everyone else ran over to Rena asking her to play something on her flute. Rena looks to Avvina for permission; the bird was fuming slightly at the children’s rudeness. She gives Rena the go ahead and smacks right into Raion. The lioness huffed and Avvina could feel the heat coming off.

“Oh Avvina, are you finally joining our team? This is so exciting I was so hoping you’d change your mind” Licorne once again jump hugs out of nowhere. She gasps loudly and grabs Avvina by the cheeks “we could make friendship bracelets with your hoops.”

Avvina breaks free and composes herself “I do have some friendship necklaces for you three.” Her voice sounds suspiciously innocent and the hair on the back of Raion’s neck rises in alarm. Avvina pulls out three hoops with black goo on them and Raion reacts.

Licorne yelps as Raion pounces on Avvina and slams her into the concrete. The concrete cracks from the strength and heat.  
Raion raises a fist to punch but Gorm grabs it and yanks her off “Raion ease up you’re scaring the kids.” Raion glares at Gorm but whimpers stop her tongue. She looks to see the kids were hiding behind Rena, their eyes were wide with fear. 

“I didn’t-I didn’t mean to” Raion stutters and Avvina uses the distraction to get up and pull out her hoops.

“NOW YOU’RE ALL MINE” She shouts throwing the hoops at each of the knights. They can’t even gasp before the hoops wrap around their necks. 

Rena steps forward joining the others in standing at attention in front of Avvina. “Now this is more like it” Avvina throws her head back to laugh. She walks over to Gorm and throws herself into his arms “it’s too hot to fly, carry me someplace cool.” 

The group takes off leaving the kids gawking confused at the sudden events. Manon who grew up close to reporters and other news crew pulled her phone out. This was too suspicious not to report to her mom. 

“You know what Pollen? I don’t need her, I’ve got plenty of friends I could replace her with” Chloe snaps punching her bag which now contained a picture of Sabrina. Pollen was watching her while snacking on the honey treats the staff had dropped off that morning. “We’re not friends anymore because you’re garbage” Chloe mocks Sabrina’s squeaky voice and punches the bag so hard it falls off its chain. 

“I don’t think that’s what she said” Pollen says as Chloe sits on the floor breathing heavy. “Ending your friendship may have been the smartest thing she’s ever done” she adds more quietly.

“POLLEN” Chloe wails falling onto her back “you’re supposed to be on my side.”

“I am on your side” Pollen says landing on Chloe’s exposed tummy. “Maybe now you’ll realize just how hurtful you have been to the people you care about.”

Chloe sits up quickly knocking Pollen to the floor “no way, Sabrina is being absolutely ridiculous and over dramatic. It’s her loss that she lost me as her best friend. ” Chloe jumps to her feet and starts a rampage through her room. Pollen can only watch sadly as Chloe rips every photo, tears every piece of clothing and destroys every doll that Sabrina had a connection to. She rips open the drawer that contained her costume of Ladybug and Sabrina’s Chat Noir, her hands grasp the bell and she stops.

“Oh honey” Pollen soothes as Chloe falls onto her knees. Pollen puts a nub on her back as she hugs the costume.

Chloe’s comb light up softly, Pollen flies up and stares at it. “We got a message from the team” she announces as Chloe wipes her eyes.

Chloe jumps to her feet putting on her confidence mask again “HA, I may have lost Sabrina but I have a whole team of better friends. Of super friends, something she can never have.” 

“Pollen, stingers out”

Queen Bee was eager to get this over with so she and Ladybug could go out and get ice cream. She isn’t even that surprised to find a giant weed overtaking part of downtown. It was just another day in paradise. 

Ladybug waves her over to a rooftop where she, Rena and Chrysalid were waiting. Rena has her arms wrapped around her upper body covering the necklaces on her neck. “Okay girls, it looks like it’s just us today, Chat’s still away and Carapace isn’t answering.”

“What about Paon our weed wacker? Where’s that stupid redhead?” Bee snaps sticking her lips out in a pout. Ladybug and Chrysalid share a look.

“Paon isn’t feeling too well, he’s bed bound for a while” Ladybug explains. “Are you feeling okay Bee? You’re a little more grouchy than usual.”

Bee shrugged and summoned her dipper to her side “let’s just kick grass first than have a girl talk.” 

Ladybug can’t exactly say that wasn’t sound logic, “okay so the plants are keeping people trapped in its seeds, Bee, Rena I need you to keep the plants distracted while Chrysalid and I free the people.”

“Why do I have to be the bee-coy” Bee complains tapping her foot. Ladybug resists rolling her eyes, crap she hated it when Bee was like this.

“You get to punch stuff” Chrysalid offers.

“I do like to punch stuff” Bee smiles slightly then flies off to attack the nearest dandelion. Chrysalid flashes Ladybug a thumb up and Ladybug giggles throwing one back.

“Watch the roots” Rena cries grabbing Bee before an over sized root could hit her. Bee frowns as Rena pulls her again keeping them on the defensive, she wanted to hit things darn it. She glanced over at Ladybug and Chrysalid approaching the weed with the seed head. So far so good, none of the plants showed any interest in them. 

Bee turns her attention back to the battle right as Rena crashes into her to save her from a storm of sharp leaves coming for her head. “Pay attention your highness or you’ll end up with a buzz cut” Rena sneers the nickname tossing Bee aside. 

Queen Bee’s ribbon sprang up like an antenna and twitched. Rena never called her “your highness” it was always Queenie. She watches Rena use her flute to slice the head off one plant and go for the next one. Bee frowned noticing the empty stalk was thick on the inside, dandelions were supposed to be hallow on the inside. She closes her eyes and reopens them with her sclera bright blue and her iris’s a golden brown. With these she could see what a bee could see, and instead of pollen on those flowers they vanished all together. She cursed and looked to the one Ladybug was currently standing on, the seeds were invisible to her eye and she could see what Ladybug was actually about to touch.

“LADYBUG IT’S A TRAP” 

Ladybug’s hand freezes hearing Bee’s shout. Chrysalid touches the seed in front of her and the illusion poofs away revealing they were on a building facing the knights of sin. “You’re all mine Ladybug” Avvina purrs holding up two rings covered in black goo.

Ladybug and Chrysalid jump out of the way of the hoops and Avvina growls in annoyance. Chrysalid pulls out her staff and with a purple flash it transforms into its sword form. It was a stylized broadsword with a purple blade and several black roses burned into its design. With a war cry she swings it into Licorne’s horn and the two engage in a sword fight. 

Licorne pushes her horn against Chrysalid and leans in close “you’re pretty cute little butterfly, but I’ve been trained by a real swords woman.” She pushes the swords up sending Chrysalid’s up into the air then pushes her over to Raion who holds her blade close to her throat. 

“Hold on Ladybug, I’m coming” Bee cries zooming over only for Rena to block her path. Bee doesn’t even hesitate and swings her dipper at Rena’s face. Rena grabs hold of the dipper and swings Bee over to the roof where she lands with an ungraceful flop. 

When her vision clears Bee sees Ladybug trapped in a net coming from Licorne’s horn. She struggles to get to her feet only for a horrible chill to come from behind, she looks to see her wings had been frozen together by Gorm.

Avvina struts over to Chrysalid who had her teeth clenched in concentration “trying to get help with your butterflies? I don’t think so.” She slams the ring over Chrysalid’s neck and Chrysalid whimpers as the magic covers her.

The butterfly mask flutters over her face “you can do it Reaper, find him” she orders to her butterfly. Her brown eyes turn green and an unnatural smile bursts on her face “how can your butterfly serve you?”

Avvina nods to Rena who pulls out her phone to record “you see Ladybug? Without your kitty you’re useless hero. So I think it’s time you stepped down and let a real hero protect Paris”. Licorne pulls the net off but Ladybug didn’t attack. Instead she opened her now green eyes and smiled at Avvina.

“You’re right Avvina, I am a worthless hero. Please defend Paris and your Ladybug will clean up the mess” Ladybug chirps puffing her chest out to show off the collar around her neck.

“Smart bug” Avvina purrs petting Ladybug’s head. Avvina turns to the camera with an evil smirk “you heard her Paris, you have a new protector of Paris. The mayor will be hosting a party in my honour tonight so I expect everyone to arrive to adore me. And if anyone apposes-“she holds up a hoop “-I have just the thing to change your mind.”

“You won’t get away with this bird brat” Queen Bee growls slowly pulling herself up. The cold had pierced her flesh and made it hard to move. 

Avvina throws her head back to laugh “oh your highness I almost forgot about you.” She pulls out a hoop and moves to throw it “but even a Queen has to serve her goddess” Bee ducks and closes her eyes. When nothing happens she reopens them to see Avvina holding her hand out to Rena who was patting her pockets then shrugs when she finds nothing.

Avvina rolls her eyes “great of course we run out before everyone is mine.” She points to Chrysalid “you and your butterflies go get more of that demon goo at the docks. Everyone else let’s get ready for this party.”

“What about Queen Bee?” Gorm asks putting his boot on Bee forcing her back onto her gut.

“She’ll be our prisoner until I can get more hoops, does anyone know where Paon is?”

“OH” Ladybug raises her hand eagerly “I know my goddess” 

“Then you’ll be in charge of bringing him to the party as our guest” Avvina orders turning and spotting Rena was still recording “why are you still recording you idiot, cut it” she does a cut motion over her neck and Rena shuts it off. 

Sabrina is stunned watching the video live from her phone in the bathroom of the museum. Wixxin grabs Sabrina’s shirt “this is bad, this is really, really bad!” 

“I know it’s bad, but I know Queen Bee and Paon will be able to save the day” Sabrina says confidently. 

“Did you see her miraculous sugar? It’s been infected” Wixxin cries. Sabrina just looks confused and Wixxin’s nose twitched frustrated “Avvina said there was more goo at the docks, that means the knights didn’t properly dispose of the demon remains. We have to warn them!” 

“Okay, okay we’ll go to this party and warn Queen Bee” Sabrina puts her hands up in surrender.

Wixxin relaxes slightly “remember its fangs-“

“We won’t be transforming Wixxin” Sabrina cuts her off harshly. Wixxin doesn’t hide her look of hurt “I’m just a lackey, not a superhero. Now come on the mayor’s hotel is quite a walk from here” Sabrina rushes outside forcing Wixxin to jump into her bag. 

Ladybug lands in her room with a loud thud “oh Paon our goddess has a most wonderful offer for you” she squeaks throwing open the curtains she had over her bed. She gasps seeing Paon was no longer on her bed. 

Paon bites his lip to muffle the gasp of pain as Ladybug searched the room. The butterfly had given him enough magic to block the poison symptoms somewhat but it still burned with every move. He slowly released his breath as Ladybug’s feet stepped away from his hiding spot. Then his fan phone lights up with a call, he curses as she rushes back.

Ladybug pulls the blankets off and looks under the bed, her smile falls when all she finds is his fan buzzing by itself. She picks it up not noticing him hanging from the ceiling fan; he jumps and slams a kick into her back. 

Ladybug yelps as he grabs the collar and uses his other fan on it; it clangs loudly but doesn’t break. She whips her yo-yo out to nab him but he flips out of the way. Paon grits his teeth and in a blink of an eye he’s flown up to the balcony and vanished from sight. 

Ladybug clicks her earpiece “Rena do you still have a tracker on him?” 

“I have it on his fan, he’s still at the bakery” Rena chirps. Ladybug looks at the fan on the ground and groans. 

 

“Now this is the life” Avvina purrs leaning back on a throne she had made on top of the stairs in the hotel’s lobby. Queen Bee was beside her in an ice cage with more trapping her wings and hands. Rena was on the other with a plate of grapes and a cup of pop. Down below the party goers were dancing but the tension was so thick it could be cut with a knife.

“Your ear’s looking rather swollen, might want to get that looked at” Bee hisses glaring at her eyes as cold as the ice. 

Avvina self-consciously puts a hand over the earrings now covered in the red veins and had started to grow on her face. “You be quiet, once I have my hoops I’ll be making you rub my feet”.’

Bee gasps and leans as far away from Avvina as possible “as if I’d ever do anything so disgusting.” Avvina ignores her and motions for Rena to feed her. Bee flinches as Avvina puts her feet on Ladybug’s back, her idol reduced to a footrest. 

Sabrina stopped at the edge of the crowd looking up to Avvina. She noticed everyone under her control was wearing the same style of collar and they were the only ones allowed to approach Avvina with a gift. She slips over to the curtains and takes the golden hoop that was holding the curtains together. She attaches it to her necklace and hopes it would fool them. Her hands grip the purple present she had wrapped and makes her way up the stairs. She smiles nervously at Raion who lets her pass with a smile that looked terrifyingly on the lioness. 

Avvina smiles like a predator “what have you brought the hero of Paris?” 

Sabrina gulps and holds her gift out “its some cookies I made.” Licorne rips the box from her hands making her yelp. Licorne is full business as she pulls the top off to reveal some sugar cinnamon cookies. Her face softens and she hands it back to Sabrina to give to Avvina.

“I love cookies, give it here” Avvina orders leaning forward eager to satisfy her sweet tooth. 

Sabrina shakes then feels Wixxin tap her side from her purse, giving her the nerve to stick to the plan. “My goddess, may I give one to your knights? I made enough for everyone to share.”

Avvina scowls but looks at Licorne’s eager expression at the thought of having a cookie. She looks back at the box which easily had twenty cookies and sighed “very well but only one and none for Ladybug.” 

Sabrina hands one to Rena and Licorne who squeak out their thanks before nibbling on the cookie. She gives one to Raion next who doesn’t smile but does give a thank you before continuing her guarding. Finally she makes her way to Gorm who was guarding Queen Bee, she sends a prayer then trips. 

The cookies spill out onto the floor, Gorm being the gentleman that he is drops his weapon to help her pick them up. Sabrina crawls over to Queen Bee pretending to be after a cookie, she looks up and her voice catches in her throat. Queen Bee was glaring at her like she was the cause behind all this. Sabrina reminds herself it was likely just her panicked imagination, she had to warn her. Gorm suddenly grabs her from behind and helps her present her gift to Avvina. Avvina accepts her gift and places it on her side while Sabrina is escorted down the steps. Sabrina whimpered softly realizing she had failed, but what could you expect from the lackey?

“Everyone, can I have your attention please?” Avvina orders and clapped her hands. The music stops and everyone turns to face her. Avvina stood up and motioned for Ladybug to follow, “Ladybug here has been your savior for years and has painted herself as this flawless being.”

From the second floor Paon gasps for breath leaning against a wall pulling out his brown feather. The feather half turned into an arrow then fizzled back to normal. He grunts and with more effort than one would think to use he gets his arrow and bow. With shaky hands he leans on the railing and points the arrow at Avvina.

“But no more” Avvina cries moving Ladybug in front of her and unintentionally blocking Paon’s way. “Ladybug here is going to show herself to be nothing but a fraud. Ladybug I order you to reveal to Paris who you really are.” Paon curses and tries to jump on the railing to swoop down but his vision blurs and he collapses back down.

“Yes my goddess, Tikki spots-“

A huge bang cuts Ladybug off and Chrysalid lands in front of everyone. “What the heck are you doing?” Avvina shouts as Chrysalid gets to her feet looking distressed. 

“We have a problem a big-“another explosion rocks the building. Avvina pales as the roof of the building is pulled off by a giant black glob monster. It roars and slams its hand onto the crowd; People scream as they're absorbed into the goo. 

Avvina gulps and takes a step back “Ladybug what are you waiting for? Call out a plan and stuff.”

“You ordered me to have no mind of my own for this evening, I am you bubble head bug my goddess” Ladybug chirps way too cheerfully. 

Avvina makes a squawking noise of panic and looks to Raion “Raion do something!” Raion thankfully isn’t a bubble head and jumps up to strike the blob with her sword. The other knights follow suit in attacking. The blob roars annoyed and slams them back. Avvina growls and flicks her hoops out “alright fine I’ll do it myself.”

The blob makes a sound like it was laughing as Avvina flies up and flings her hoops at it. It absorbs the hoops then fires them back out trapping Licorne against a wall. Raion and Gorm run beside Avvina who was avoiding the blobby tentacles chasing after her. “What is your orders goddess?” Raion asks managing to speak in a way that Avvina felt was spiteful. 

“I uh-“Avvina cuts off ducking from a tentacle, it smashes into Gorm and Raion sending them flying though the food tables. Sabrina who was hiding under them gasps at Raion’s sword falling in front of her face. She looks up at Queen Bee still in her cage and grabs the sword, she knew what to do. 

Bee gasps as a hissing is heard and sees Sabrina using the heated sword to cut though the ice. The cage falls and she moves it close to Bee’s wings “careful those are delicate” Bee snaps ducking low. A tentacle attracted to the energy slaps Sabrina away and moves to absorb Bee. Bee growls and her wings spring up shattering the ice. 

The tentacle hisses as Bee lights up to blinding levels, like she was a sun pushing back the shadows. Sabrina is transfixed as Bee grunts and flaps her wings harder to make the light stronger. Meanwhile Avvina is stumbling to grab her more expensive gifts which the blob destroys easily. Rena and Ladybug are too busy trying to move a TV that they’re both captured in the goo. “Raion, free them” Avvina orders and tugged at her pigtails. Raion could have done so with her sword but without it her claws force her to get too close to the goo and she’s trapped like fly in a flytrap. She screams as the tar like substance swallows her whole. 

Avvina glares at Chrysalid “make a champion that will stop this.”

“I will try my goddess” Chrysalid squeaks closing her eyes and concentrating, by doing so she doesn’t see the attack until she’s been smashed across the room into Gorm. The goo laughs again and its form grows slightly.

“That creature will continue to absorb energy until it’s unstoppable” Wixxin whispers poking her head out. “We need someone to suck that energy out” she looks up hopefully at Sabrina. 

Sabrina backed up against the wall holding back tears. Bee let out a roar blasting a light at the tentacle’s which only stopped them for a moment. “I can’t” Sabrina whimpers “I’ll only make it worse.” She spots a door to her left and rushes inside. She slams the door behind her and the two find themselves in a private janitor’s closet. 

“If you didn’t act back in the ally I would have been ripped apart” Wixxin flies out and holds Sabrina’s hand. “It’s up to you to decide to go out there or escape, but I will be with you whatever you choose.” 

Sabrina bites her lip looking to the window which was big enough for her to squeeze though. Then she looks back at the door where she could hear Bee’s war cries. Her hands clench into fists and she looks to Wixxin “I think it’s time for a solar eclipse.” 

“Wixxin, fangs bared”

Wixxin cheers as she’s sucked into the hairband. The horns enlarge into two bat ears. Sabrina pushes her glasses up and they transform into a dark indigo mask, her eyes also get some purple eye shadow with eyeliner. She points her toes as the magic covers her in her outfit. It was an indigo bodysuit with sparkles on her sides looking like stars. Her purple boots had clawed ends to allow her to hang upside down. She looks to her back as the wings spring out and flap twice excitedly. She giggles and opens her mouth as cute little fangs grow on her teeth. She closes her mouth with a smile and moves her fingers over her mouth. She leaves behind lavender lipstick with two white streaks designed to look like fangs. Sabrina spins twice then poses with her back to the “camera” peeking over her wings with a shy smile.

Queen Bee screams as light is drained out of her by the blob, she put all her strength towards blasting it back but it’s no use. She closes her eyes waiting for the end. Then there’s a hauntingly beautiful sound of a violin cutting though the chaos. She opens her eyes to see a black smoke coming out of the tentacles making them turn dry and crack. A screech from above creates a visible sound wave that shatters the tentacles. 

Paon groans and opens his eyes feeling lightheaded; a pink energy was seeping out of him towards the violin player. He pushes himself to his feet and jumps on the railing to join the battle.

“What’s going on?” Avvina squeaked watching as the goo monster started to shrink. Ladybug, Raion and Rena gasped for air as they were freed from the goo. Avvina looks to where the smoke was going and spots a figure flying above the battle playing a violin, their entire body seemed to glow as they played.  
Avvina’s mouth is slightly ajar as the moon behind the figure brightens her features, she was beautiful. 

The monster roars and moves to hit the bat out of the air. Paon launches at it swiping with one fan, the arm crumbles to dust. The blob groans as its energy is sucked away. It grew smaller and smaller until Bee was able to crash it with her foot. Avvina is speechless as the gorgeous figure stops her playing and kisses the bow of the violin. She then drags the bow on the strings like an archer would. 

“Cosmic Arrow” she cries firing the arrow and hitting Avvina in the chest. Avvina doesn’t cry out but falls to her knees with a blinding flash.

The collars shatter and everyone affected shakes their heads confused. Ladybug looking the most horrified for falling under a spell again, she really was useless without her kitty.

Avvina touches her earrings and gives a joyful sigh discovering the red veins were gone. Then a mic is suddenly shoved in her face “Avvina is it true you’re Paris’s newest super villain?” Nadja Chamack asks while her partner holds a camera in front of her face. 

Avvina’s face paled “super villain?” she whimpers as more reporters flood in with similar questions.

“Stand back” Raion orders jumping in front of Avvina with her fellow knights. 

“I’ve about had it with you knights of sin” Officer Raincomplix pushes though the crowd and puts his hands on his hips. “All you so called knights have done is cause trouble for the real heroes of Paris, give me one reason why I shouldn’t arrest you all.”

Raion for once flinches unable to think of what to say. So it’s Ladybug who comes to her defense “Officer Raincomplix the knights of sin have been fighting all the demons that have been appearing around the city, getting rid of them faster than we could alone.”

Roger frowns and looks up at the mostly destroyed hotel “looks like they’ve been slacking on that job.”

“That’s my fault officer” Rena chimes in raising her hand. “I bumped into them last night and made them leave before they could finish the job. I was going to myself but I must have missed some. Really most of them have been doing a great job.” 

The bat flies down and offers Avvina a hand. Avvina stares at her white iris’s then slowly accepts the hand. “Avvina here was corrupted by the demons, but I think she’s okay now” the girl turns to the officer with a small smile. “We promise to try and keep the damage to a minimum from now on.”

Roger sighs and disappears off to give his statement to the waiting reporters. Paon runs up to the girl with Bee behind him. “Hey I just wanted to say thanks for helping me out and uh…how did you do that?”

The bat chuckles and holds up her violin “my power is to drain excess energy and use it to power my cosmic arrow. I think your extra positive energy was what saved Avvina from the corruption.”

“That’s cool and all but don’t even think about hurting Paon” Bee says throwing her arms around Paon protectively (possessively). 

“Aw Bee you’re always so worried about us” Paon teases making Bee blush and stutter to regain her cool hero image. Ladybug’s heart sinks as the two continue to low key flirt, Rena senses her distress and puts a hand on her shoulder. Ladybug decides against talking about it and she summons her miraculous ladybug to fix the damage. 

Licorne jumps on the bat to give the “welcome to the team” hug. Raion looks down at her miraculous as Purrde flooded her mind with images of the first bat of gluttony. “There are only two knights missing, Sloth and….envy” Ladybug feels the aggression in her words and pouts. What was it going to take for this lioness to stop blaming her for that? Was she going to have to break into Nathaniel’s room to see if he still had it? She sure as heck wasn’t going to be turning it in to Raion even if she did find it. 

The bat flinches as her ears beep, instead of losing colour they shrink slightly. Licorne gets off and holds out her fist, the group of hero’s and knights join in on the pound it. Even Avvina joins in when the stranger motions for her to join. 

“What should we call you knight of gluttony?” Raion asks as the bat moved to leave.

She spread her wings out catching the lights and making them twinkle like stars. “Call me Lune Bat” she squeaks then winks. Avvina could have sworn it was at her. Lune takes two steps then flies off into the night. 

“Now about you-“Raion turned only to see dust where Avvina once was. She rolled her eyes and shook her head. 

“You owe me the largest most delicious sausage from the meat man” Tutti is saying from the hiding spot Lila had found that best suited her mood. Inside a dumpster Lila has the dumbest expression as she slides down it and sits on the bottom. It was a mixture of shock and horror, her mouth a tight line and her eyes as large as saucers. Tutti could complain all he wanted she was going to accept this as her home for a minute. 

 

“This has been the craziest night, did you know I had positive poisoning or whatever?” Nathaniel asks before Duusu had even fully flown out of his miraculous back in his room. 

“I had no idea to be honest, most of the time people with positive poisoning collapse immediately but you were fine all day yesterday.” Duusu admits shaking her feathers like she was wet. “I can still feel the energy from you, makes me all tingly.”

“I can provide a reason for that” a female voice says making them both jump. A girl climbs out of Nathaniel’s bed and steps into the moonlight. She points at Nath “you blood head are a child of moon.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The knight of Gluttony has appeared and I love little Wixxin with all my heart.  
> In other news Avvina knows Rena's identity, stay tuned to see how that plays out.


	12. The Fox and the Gay disaster

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alya struggles with trying to please Avvina and keep her identity safe. Meanwhile Lila's gay disaster self begins to emerge

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So much has happened and I have written so many scenes for later chapters. I got a Raion centered chapter in the works, my take on season three's first episode, and others I won't spoil just yet.

Chapter 12 The fox and the gay disaster  
“You are a child of moon” Charlotte announces with fire burning in her eyes. Nathaniel just looks confused while Duusu is twitching from the instinct to hide. Charlotte rolled her eyes “I’m a familiar birdie, it’s not like I can tell anyone.”

Duusu perked at that “what’s a familiar doing in Paris? And what do you mean he’s a child of moon?” she grabs Nathaniel’s face and stretches his cheeks “does this look like a cold blooded witch to you?”

Charlotte chuckles as Nath frees himself from Duusu’s grip. “Well my owner doesn’t make mistakes birdie. Your wielder is the first born child of moon born in over a century.”  
“That genie called me that too, before I purified her in the Seine” Nath mutters putting his hand on his hip. “Is that how I cleaned the river as well?” 

“It must be” Duusu gasps before Charlotte can answer. “Our magic must have combined and made soul strike even more powerful.”

“And let every demon in Europe know there’s a tasty moon child in Paris” Charlotte adds licking her lips. She chuckles when the two gawk at her “come on if I didn’t get my juice from my owner I’d have you wrapped up in my webs and I’d be draining you dry.”

“I’d royal strike you back into the demon world before you would have a chance” Duusu hisses preparing to do just that. Nathaniel stops her with a look and turns back to Charlotte. 

“Do I know you from somewhere? You seem familiar.”

“Oh we’re like the best of friends” Charlotte chirps and she shrinks into her spider form. Both Nathaniel and Duusu yelp and jump back. 

“It’s you!” Nath squeaks as Duusu jumps on his head and her feathers flap out trying to look threatening. “How are you-I thought I”

“Yeah thought you saw the last of me” Charlotte purrs jumping onto his bed. “But I’m a slippery little demon and escaped before I could be exorcised. No thanks to you” she turns back into her human girl form and crosses her legs. “But I’m willing to put that behind me since you were under the control of my ex-boss.” Nathaniel flinches at that while Duusu looks like she wants to attack. Charlotte just smirks amused “while I was exploring the world I became the familiar to the most powerful blood moon witch of this century and she wanted me to keep an eye on the only other child of moon left.”

“So what is a child of moon?” Nathaniel asks glancing between the kwami and the familiar.

“It’s not my place to tell you” Charlotte starts digging into her pocket and pulling out a slightly crumpled envelope. Nathaniel takes it and smooths it out. It was sealed with red wax with an imprint of a crescent moon. “She’ll appear in the black forest during the wolf moon, if you want to know more you’ll meet her there.”

“But that’s months away” Nathaniel cries looking up only to find Charlotte had vanished. Duusu zips around the room to see if she had hidden somewhere but finds nothing. Nathaniel sighs and peels open the envelope. 

“Pretty” Duusu comments as he pulls out a silver chain with a gray rock attached. He runs a thumb over the smooth stone and for a split second there was an image on it. It looked like a willow tree. Duusu shivered catching Nathaniel’s attention. 

“You’re worried…is this something bad?”

Duusu shook her head quickly “no it’s just um-well you see I uh…” she trailed off seeing his face. He looked confused and a little scared. She landed on his hand next to the necklace “the miraculous and child of moon magic has never mixed before. I’m just nervous what the future could hold.”

“Maybe we should find the spell for Oracle eye again” Nathaniel joked and Duusu flinched. Nath dropped his head “you’re right that wouldn’t work.”

“With the amount of sleep you’re getting oracle eye could cause more harm than good” Duusu flew up to brush some hair out of Nathaniel’s face. Nath rubbed his eye and she placed the rock on his nightstand. “Get some sleep peachick, a demon or an akuma or even a corrupt could attack tomorrow” Nath nodded and she left to rest in her nest.  
Nath fell back onto his pillow and waited to hear Duusu’s even breathing. Once he was sure she was asleep he moved out of bed and used his phone to keep himself awake. 

“It’s unbelievable that children have done this” Shu mutters looking at a screen that showcased Marinette’s memory. It was a news feed of the Seine lighting up under Paon’s power.

“I really don’t like you searching though my memories, it’s a huge invasion of privacy” Marinette cries from her spot in the cloudy dream land. Shu shot her a look that burned of dragon’s fire, Marinette flinched and Shu chuckled.

“I only watch what you allow me to; I need to make sure your training hasn’t been in vain.” As if on cue it changed to a memory of Ladybug looking up to Avvina and claiming she was hers. “And it seems I haven’t been teaching you enough” the fire look returned.

“It’s because I didn’t have Chat with me, if I did I would have-“

“NO EXCUSES!” Shu yelled causing a hot wind to blow by Marinette and Tikki. Marionette blocks with her arms and Tikki grabs hold of her pigtail. 

Marinette puts her arms down and puts on a brave face. “Maybe the knights aren’t our enemy, the only times they’ve been a threat is when they’ve been corrupted.”

“Have you lost your mind wielder of creation?” Shu hisses walking towards the girl. “Have you forgotten what the knights have done? What chaos they brought to the world?” 

Marinette flinches as Shu forces her own memories into her dream. First was a small Chinese village destroyed by a giant wave from Wrath, the next was an early Paris with thousands of coins flooding away from the houses towards the old knight of greed. The third, Marionette felt her blood run cold. The first ladybug with a sword though her torso from the mosquito lady.

“But those were the old wielders, and the new ones are nothing like that” Marinette stubbornly pushes away the memories to replace with her own. Gorm giving some kids rides on his guitar and Raion saving a group of construction workers from a crane that fell over. “These knights are heroes, I mean if it wasn’t for Lune who knows what would have happened.”

Shu’s mouth is a thin line as the memory of Lune firing her cosmic arrow at Avvina is shown. Shu takes a deep breath and exhales fire, Marinette yelps as the memory is destroyed from sight. Shu turns to Marionette and the strings floating by her face like a dragon’s whiskers fell flat. “Marinette it is not the knights themselves I am worried about, it is their kwami.” 

Marinette couldn’t stop the memory of Paon handing her the giant mosquito in the plastic bag. “This mosquito lady has corrupted them right? How can I help them?”  
Shu drew her weapon from its holder and smirked. “I will show you in your next lesson, Tikki if you will.”

Tikki nods and transforms into yet another past wielder. This one had long black hair and with a flowing long sleeved red and black shirt. What stood out most to Marionette was the lack of mask and gloves on this version of ladybug. “Bo Rua the gentle at your service” she said in a happy go lucky tone of voice. She throws a wink Marinette’s way then joins Shu in the demonstration. 

 

A nurse stares at some notes in her hand as she walks down the empty hallway. It was early morning and the sun had yet to come up. A shadow slips between rooms behind the nurse making her stop and look back. She jumps as a sound comes from one of the computer rooms. Slowly she slips towards the doorway and peeks inside. She sees the window locked tight with a key and the computer screen was on. Had someone forgot to turn it off? She takes a step inside only for a ball of feathers to jump at her, she screams and jumps back. She clenched her chest as the pigeon flaps against the window and looks back to her as if to say “could you lend me a hand?”

The nurse knew the doctor of this office always had the window open when he worked, he must have accidentally trapped this bird inside. She takes out her keys and opens the window “there you go little guy” she says with a smile. The pigeon didn’t move so the nurse stepped out of the room to allow it to feel safe to fly out. After a second it gives a happy coo and she goes back in to close the window. She bumps the mouse and the computer’s screen saver goes away and a document that was several weeks old comes on screen. She frowns but didn’t think anything of it, leaving the room to continue her original task.

Outside Avvina is playing around on a wrist phone she had found while waiting. The magic technology was an incredible thing; she had several icons for each of the knights of sin. The ones activated were coloured while the others were black silhouettes. Raion was a sun, Gorm was a wave, Licorne was a rainbow, and Lune was a moon. Her heart jumped looking over Lune’s name and forced her attention on the black ones. Something told her the snake head was envy and the circle was sloth. But there were two more icons when she shuffled down the screen. Avvina made a confused sound at them. The first was a black dragonfly silhouette; the other was a golden mask with blood red jewels. She had no intention to call any of the knights but couldn’t stop herself from tapping the long nosed mask. It rang twice then a message popped up stating the user was out of range. 

A thump makes Avvina yelp and slam the phone off. She looks up as Rena and a pigeon approach her, the bird lands on Rena’s outstretched finger and poofs away in a cloud of smoke. Avvina puts on a fake smile “so did you find Masquerade?”

“I’ve narrowed it down to a few possible suspects, people who were hospitalized after the demon army attacked.” Rena spoke crossing her arms, Avvina’s small tail feathers twitched annoyed.

“Well who are they?” 

Rena huffed and pointed her finger “why do you want to know who Masquerade was anyway? Anyone who was under Hawk moth’s control doesn’t remember anything from that time. Why do you want to torment some innocent civilian on something they had no control over?”

“Why I want to know is none of your business fox” Avvina snaps and her arms subconsciously cover where her mark was. She forced an ugly smirk “now tell me their names or I’ll spill your secret Cesaire.”

Rena’s ears flattened and she took a step back. Avvina caught a fang peeking out from her lip, did she always have fangs? “Fine” Rena growled stepping in close so Avvina had to look up to meet her eyes “There’s three people who were hospitalized around that time with possible ties-“ she held up one finger with a claw poking out. “Nathalie Sancoeur, Mr. Agreste’s assistant was put into a coma after the attacks. Reason classified.” A second claw goes up “Nathaniel Kurtzberg, hospitalized after Ladybug’s cure revived him from being cataclysmed. He is considered the last akuma created under Hawk moth’s control.”

Rena had a flat expression for the most part, but fear flickered in her eyes as she raised the third claw. “Adrian Agreste the son of Mr. Agreste, most of his info is classified but he is the son of Hawk moth.”

Avvina laughed “I already know two of those people that will make it easy to hunt them down.”

Rena grabbed Avvina’s arm “if you think I’m going to just stand by and let you hurt my classmates then you got another thing coming!” 

“Like you stand a chance against me” Avvina snapped freeing her arm. “Besides you’re going to be the one doing the investigation.” Rena’s ears twitch in annoyance. 

“And just how am I going to do that?”

“I’m sure a clever fox like yourself will be able to figure it out” Avvina has to reach to pat Rena on the head. 

Rena narrowed her eyes “let me make this very clear vulture, if you hurt anyone I will make you regret it.”

Avvina smiled more confidently then she felt “I’d turn you back into my little pet before you’d have the chance.” She holds up a ring and taps it gently against Rena’s neck. She gasps as Rena poofs away as orange smoke and the real Rena grabs her from behind. Rena traps her arms behind her back and her eyes are glowing dangerously.

“You caught me by surprise before but a fox is no one’s pet” Rena shoves her off and glares her down. 

Avvina matched the glare but her hands are slightly shaking “just get me the info and your secret identity is safe, deal?” Rena’s glare lessened and Avvina bit her lip to avoid saying anything else to get under her skin. There was only so far you could push an animal before it snapped. 

“Deal” Rena growled running past her and leaping off into the early morning. Avvina shivers despite the warm sun and heads off to her own home.  
Rena slips into her bedroom and slams her fist against the wall. Her transformation drops and a tired looking Trixx pops out “I hate her” Alya growls pulling her hair.

“I can’t stand her either but you shouldn’t take that out on the wall” Trixx says patting the cracked drywall. 

“We’re being blackmailed Trixx, I don’t care about the wall” Alya cries starting to pace back and forth. 

Trixx flies to her shoulder and puts a paw on her cheek “I know this sucks, but we’ll find a way through it.” He puts on a sneaky smirk “in fact I bet…”

“Trixx I appreciate it, but I have to meet up with Nino” Alya doesn’t even look at the kwami as she threw her bag over her shoulders. Trixx’s face droops as she got ready for the day, her mind clearly somewhere else. Her socks were mismatched and as she left her right hand grasped the miraculous tightly. 

“Alya are you okay? You seem distracted” Nino comments as Alya starts planting a flower upside down. Most of the class was gathered once again to finish the final touches on the newly constructed miraculous gardens.

It had turned out awesome, a beautiful combination of annual and perennial plants filled up every corner. One part was Japanese inspired with a large Japanese maple surrounded by stone. There was also Chinese, English, and Hawaiian and of course French inspired sections. There were benches for garden goers to sit and even a gazebo for weddings. In the middle of the garden was what gave the garden its name, it was a statue of the miraculous hero’s. It displayed Rena rouge playing her flute with Carapace above her striking a demon with his shield. Queen Bee slamming another with her fist, face carved in a war cry. Paon was positioned arms out above everyone else, one foot plowing into a demon. Chat was of course positioned next to his lady, his face carved in a cheer as she threw out her yo-yo to summon her lucky charm. The artist had nailed making her look both like the fearless protector of Paris and also the girl who loved her city.

But the thing Adrien had stressed the most during planning was that there would be no fences, no gate to close the garden off to the world. The professional gardeners had urged him to change his mind so that the garden would be protected from vandalism. But Adrien had held his ground and they soon gave up. So vines crawled up the gazebo or trailed among the ground.

It was just a shame he couldn’t leave his house to see it. 

Alya corrects her mistake and finishes her job without looking at Nino. “I’m fine, I was just so excited that we would be finished today that I didn’t sleep much. 

A crash is heard from nearby and the two glance over to see Nathanial had tripped over a shovel and crashed into a pile of discarded plant containers. “Looks like you’re not the only one” Nino jokes as everyone chuckles at him. 

Nathaniel slowly pulls a large container off his head “hey pothead you alright?” Kim yells over to him. 

“That’s not nice Kim” Marinette cries rushing over to them with some sunscreen still visible on her arms and nose. Kim tries to defend himself saying it was just a joke while Marinette goes full “mom friend” on him to get him to apologise. Nino snorts quietly as it goes down, Marinette could be a force to recon with when her friends were concerned.

Nino looks to Alya to throw a joke out only to find she was too busy pulling at something on her neck to pay attention to her best friend. “Alya I can tell somethings bothering you, you can tell me you know. Maybe I can help?” He touches her shoulder and Alya flinches away. It was something Nino never wanted his touch to do “Alya hey, I’m here for you.”  
Alya puts her hand over his and for half a second he sees the way her mouth pouted and her eyes shook with tears. “I’m fine Nino, really I am” Alya turned away from him and approached Marionette. Like a flip had been switched she begins talking with Marionette about how gorgeous the cherry blossoms would look in spring. 

Nino frowned in thought, Alya was hiding something. Surely she would tell him if it was bothering her that much right? He tapped his finger against his arm. Yesterday he hadn’t seen her all day thanks to Avvina, but he did know from the lady blog that she hadn’t gotten any photos from the event. Maybe she and Rena had a fall out over the blog. Alya having a fight with a superhero would most certainly put her mood in the dumps.  
He watched the two friends disappear from sight and sighed. 

She would trust him with anything, right? 

Tutti flew out of his nest on Lila’s head and ripped open the curtains with his beak, the room flooded with sunlight. “Get up Lila we have a big day ahead of us” he announced grabbing at the blankets she tried to pull over her head. 

“It’s too early” Lila whines throwing her pillow over her head and trying to get back to dreamland. Tutti is having none of it and dumps the glass of water she had next to her bed on her exposed neck. Lila yelps and falls out of the bed with a thud. “WHAT THE HELL TUTTI”

Tutti is unfazed by her outburst “your magic mirror had a message from your father; you are meeting him to go to brunch in an hour.”

“I never agreed to go to brunch” Lila snags her phone from her nightstand. She groans loudly seeing text messages she knew she didn’t send to her dad. “Tutti did you use my phone?” she sends a glare but her ridiculous bed head prevents it from looking anything but cute. 

“After the stunt you pulled this is the least I should do” Tutti flew up right into her face. “Now get yourself dressed, I’ve already picked out your clothes.” Lila spotted the outfit lying on her bed. Thankfully it wasn’t anything too hideous, an orange tank top with white shorts. Lila sighed and picked up her hairbrush to begin the hair battle. 

Later the two were seated outside a cute little café with cups of coffee and a bowl of fruit. Her father or daddy as she called him was a thin man in a neat business suit. He was almost never without his black hair in perfect condition and a bow tie around his neck. 

“Oh my little Lila bean, I do love it when we get to spend time together” he chirped as the waiter dropped them off their bagels with cream cheese. 

“Yeah daddy it’s great” Lila agreed with a fake smile. When he turned to give the waiter a tip for the speedy service her face changed to one of complete boredom. 

Tutti sat inside her purse listening in on the conversation. Her Daddy was one heck of a talker; so far he had told her all about how he had gotten a promotion at work. How her older sister Bella had aced her final exam and was now starting her dream job. He even told a story about how he was late for work one time because of an akuma attack. “And would you believe Sally and Tom ended up together after that love zombie attack? Oh I knew those two were meant to be” he put his hands over his heart and sighed.

Lila swallowed the last bite of her breakfast and pushed her chair out to stand up “Thanks for breakfast Dad-“ 

“OH how rude of me, I started blabbing again and didn’t even ask you what you’ve been up to. I’m sure you’ve been up to something incredible my little Lila bean” he waves to the waiter for a refill of coffee and Lila resists banging her head on the table. But then again at least this time she didn’t have to create total lies, just dance around what actually happened.

“Well I’m best friends with the miraculous hero Rena Rouge; yesterday she put on a show for me with her illusions. And before that I helped Paon Bleu stop a bad guy by distracting it with my charms. Even the Knights of sin adore me, I think Ladybug is jealous that a mere citizen has so many hero’s wrapped around her finger.”

“She would have to be mad to not be jealous of my little angel” her Daddy sang and took a big gulp of his coffee. Lila beamed while Tutti rolled his eyes. Her Daddy smirked and leaned towards her “any of them trying to steal you away from Adrien?” 

“Oh constantly, even Chat Noir can’t resist me” Lila answered with a smug smile. “But I’m loyal to my dearest Adrien”

“When are you going to bring him over for me to meet with him? I want to give him the ole you think you can date my daughter talk.”

“Uh maybe-“Lila’s mind for once was blank on ideas. Time for the get away lie, “-oh I just remembered I promised Nathaniel I would be his model for his comic.” Before her Dad can speak she dumps a plate of cheese and sausage bites into her bag and bolts out of there. “Love you daddy” she calls almost smacking into a waiter. 

“Well that was rude” Tutti hisses as Lila runs around a corner.

“It’s hard to lie in front of him okay” Lila squeaks racing towards the entrance to the subway across the street.

“Then why do you-CAR!” 

Lila yelps as someone grabs her from behind and whisks them to the other side of the road. A car drives past them honking its horn at them. Lila looks up at her savior to find the bat of gluttony Lune looking back at her. “Are you alright?” she asks softly.

“I’m uh, I’m fine” Lila manages to say while trying to still her beating heart.

Lune smiles and shows off her cute little fangs “thank goodness, I wasn’t sure if I could swoop in in time.” She helps Lila to her feet and reaches for Lila’s head. Lila’s breathe hitches as the hand gently brushes her hair and pulls out a leaf that had gotten stuck in there. “Try to be more careful okay” Lune chirps opening her wings and taking off into the air. 

“Oh you like her” Tutti sings peeking his head out. Lila jumps and trips over her own feet, Tutti flies out before he could be crushed under her bum.  
Lila jabs her finger at him “that’s ridiculous I uh-uh” she laughs nervously “I was just having a PTSD flashback to when I saved Jagged Stone’s cat and…” Tutti just starts to laugh making Lila blabber trying to get his sympathy. 

Tutti wipes a joyful tear from his eye and smirks “oh you like, like her” he teases making her face turn bright red.

Lila jumps to her feet “I most certainly do not, I’m straight. Straight as an arrow” she mimes an archer firing an arrow. 

“Like the arrow she struck in your heart” Tutti sighs putting his nubs over his chest.

“Like the arrow she struck in my-HEY” Lila’s confident smirk falls when she realises what she was saying. “No sausage for you” she cries scooping him into her bag and rushing down the steps to the subway. 

“Jokes on you they’re in here” Tutti yells as she zips him up with an annoyed pout. He chuckles to himself and shoves the nearest sausage slice into his beak. 

 

That night Alya tapped away at her computer with a scowl on her face. Her computer had a blueprint of the old Agreste mansion, but no matter how hard she looked there were obvious things missing. Like The Hawk moth tower and the storage room that held the lost ones. Of course with the house destroyed it would have taken any evidence of demon activity with it. Trixx watched her quietly on her knee as she skimmed though news articles on the Agreste mansion. Her frustration only grew as she could only find the Hawk moth news and a bit about Adrian being questioned if he was going to take the torch. What nincompoop would think Adrien would do anything that would hurt anyone?

Alya’s frustration came to a boil when she tried to focus on Nathalie only to find the woman had the tittle of most boring person on earth. The only thing about her was that she was Gabriel’s assistant and organised most of Adrian’s life. Alya slams the computer shut and drags her hands though her hair, she had to find something or her identity was toast.

“Maybe we should take a break from Nathalie and Adrien, we still have one other suspect” Trixx says flying off her lap and opening the laptop. Alya leaned back in her chair as he typed down something in the search bar.

“Come on Trixx this is Nathaniel we’re talking about, the most he’s got would be an art page on Instagram.”

“Yes but” Trixx flashed Alya a cheeky smirk “he does have an interesting family.” The computer screen lights up with an ad for Blutmond spas and Alya’s face lights up. 

“Trixx you’re a genius, Nathaniel may have had contact with a demon though his grandma. He’s such a softie that a demon could have taken advantage of that” Alya scratched her chin as her mind whirred with thoughts. “I think we need to investigate Mr. Kurtzberg” Alya stood up only for a thud to be heard outside the window. Alya slams the computer shut and slowly peeks out of the curtain. “What is Carapace doing out there?” she yell whispers spotting the unmistakable shield trying to hide on a nearby roof.

“Akuma alert?” Trixx whispers back.

“I don’t think so, my blog would have given a warning” Alya peeks though the curtains again. Carapace has sat down and was fiddling with his hood. 

“I don’t know but it’s going to be hard to sneak out with him out there” Trixx suddenly smirks and his ears curl like devil horns. “But I may have the perfect solution.”

“What’s it going to cost me?” Alya deadpans crossing her arms. 

“A chocolate éclair with salted peanuts with a side order of chocolate fudge ice cream” Trixx chirps with a wink. 

Alya rolls her eyes but nods “okay tubby what’s your plan?” 

“As the kwami of illusion I have quite a few tricks up my sleeves” Trixx starts pacing in the air. “Our mirage ability allows us to project an illusion so perfect it seems real. But sometimes we tricksters get caught and we need a sneaky get away, with a little trick I call…” 

He whistles a few notes to a song and his lips glow slightly. “Camouflage” he announces and vanishes in front of her eyes.

“Holy sheet” Alya hisses starting to bounce in excitement “we can turn invisible?” 

Trixx reappears with a huge grin “it’s a little something we unlock when we bond, I’ve been waiting to show you all day.”

“Are there more powers? Do the others have new powers too? How long can we stay invisible?”

“Alya” Trixx hums and Alya stops her questioning. Trixx clears his throat to take his dear sweet time before explaining. “Camouflage counts as one of our five illusions, for every minute we’re hidden it takes another possible illusion. And I’ve got a whole bunch of new tricks we can do.”

“Like what? Come on Trixx spill”

Trixx shook his nub like he was shaking a finger “no more tricks until I get my treat”.

Alya groaned like a child being denied Christmas presents “okay we’ll get for chocolate. But then you’re telling me everything you know.” Trixx nods but he’s already daydreaming away about the future treat.

“Trixx, let’s pounce”

Carapace checked the time on his watch and slowly released a breath. Alya was being secretive to Nino but maybe she would be more open with Carapace. He had rehearsed the conversation enough times in his head, it was now or never. He jumped over to her open window and knocked on the frame. After a moment of nothing he peeks in “Alya?” 

The room is empty; maybe Alya was with Marionette. Carapace climbs inside and finds her laptop light was still on. Without thinking he opens it to see the Blutmond spa’s webpage, was Alya planning a trip there before school started?

The page suddenly closes and the laptop clicks itself off. Carapace promptly “nopes” it out of there, just because he was a super hero didn’t mean he went around messing with computer ghosts. 

Rena lands in front of Nathaniel’s bedroom window with a large smirk on her face. Oh once she was done with this blackmailing crap she was going to have so much fun with this. She peeks inside to find Nathaniel wasn’t in bed or anywhere in the room. Her first thought it perhaps he was bouncing between this and his father’s houses again. She slides inside frowning at the absolute mess the room was in. He was even worse than Nino. She uses her night vision to look around ignoring the Ladybug at the back of her mind screaming at her that she was trespassing. Her search turns up nothing too questionable for a teenage boy’s room, although he was a bigger fan of birds than she would have thought. Her eyes are drawn to a music box sitting harmlessly on a dresser, now what would Nathaniel be doing with one of these? 

“What are you doing?” Paon snapped making Rena yelp and drop the music box. It clatters to the floor spilling its contents everywhere. 

“Hey Paon I was just uh…” Rena’s eyes dart around looking for an idea. “Uh doing some things…what are you doing here?” she points her finger accusingly.

“I’ve caught peeking toms around here before, never thought a fellow super hero would be one” Paon puts his hands on his hips like a disappointed mother. 

Rena bit her lip and put her reporter skills to use. The bags slightly visible under his eyes, the way he clumsily landed in the room like he was still getting used to the costume. “You’re chasing peeking toms at three a clock in the morning, are you getting enough sleep birdie?”

Paon rubs his eye “probably not” he jolts than points his finger at her “don’t try to change the subject on me. What are you doing in Nathaniel’s room?”

Rena inwardly cursed and glanced at the floor. Something metal caught her eye and she grabbed it eagerly. Paon freezes seeing the snake choker glinting in the small moonlight coming from outside. Rena on the other hand had lit up with joy “oh my fox sense is going off like crazy on this thing. I think I just found proof of demon activity.” Paon tried to grab the necklace but Rena pulled it away “this could prove Nathaniel was Masquerade.”

Paon tilted his head to the side “what? Okay I can guarantee Nathaniel is not Masquerade, for starters Masquerade was female.”

“How can you be so sure? You’ve never even seen Masquerade” Rena counters and steps into Paon’s personal space. 

“I asked Chat about it” Paon subconsciously stands on his toes to be at eye level with her. “Why are you after Masquerade?” 

Rena’s ears droop and she sighs “if I tell you will you promise not to tell Ladybug.” Paon nods and Rena bites her lip. He sits on the bed and gestures for her to do the same. She tells him what was happening and hides her face in her hands. “It’s not fair, I work so hard to keep this life a secret because that’s what super heroes are supposed to do. And I blew it!” 

“It wasn’t your fault” Paon has a death grip on his fan. “Avvina took advantage of you while you were under a spell…not even the akuma’s are that despicable” he shakes his head in disbelief. “And she calls herself a hero” Rena puts a hand on his shoulder.

“Thanks Paon, if anyone could understand it would be you” he looks at her questionably and she smiles sheepishly. “I had a theory that Hawk moth is the one who gave you the miraculous, based off my kwami telling me about the peacock miraculous being lost at the same time as the butterfly and your unusual first appearance”.

Paon’s back feathers curled around him as he tried to make himself as small as possible “Hawk moth brainwashed me into his puppet, I had no idea at first but…”

“That’s why you’re having nightmares, you’re remembering” Rena blurted before she could help it. 

“Am I that easy to read?” Paon asks rhetorically, Rena nods gently. “Every time I try to sleep I remember a time he controlled me” he says with a sigh “he was smart enough to find ways that even when I wasn’t Paon he had the upper hand”. He resisted the urge to grab his pillow and hug it against his chest; Rena would find that kinda weird. “There was one time he knew my mom wouldn’t be home and he came into my room, he made me think he wasn’t there and just watched me…”

“I knew he was a creep” Rena made a fist and punched the mattress “if I could sneak into that prison just to punch his face I would”.

“My kwami already has pigeons crapping on his head every chance they get” Paon says a little more cheerfully. 

“You have a good kwami” Rena says with a sad smile. She stands up and puts the music box back on the shelf “we should get going, this was a dead end and I don’t want us getting caught trespassing”. She hesitates with putting the necklace back but does so and closes the box quietly “I’ll have to keep searching to keep Avvina off my back” 

“Masquerade was Hawk moth’s assistant Nathalie” Paon blurts almost with no emotion. Rena’s mouth falls open “She was…” he trails off for a second. “She was Le Paon” even just saying her name left a bad taste in his mouth.

Rena’s eyes lit up “Le Paon had access to demon goo right from the beginning. It would make sense that she would gain a demon form of Masquerade, Paon you’re a genius.” Paon yelps as she grabs him and squeezes him in a hug. She lets him go and her flute dings with a notification “got my info just in time” she says with a smirk. 

“Let me help” Paon says jumping up from the bed.

Rena shakes her head “you should be getting some sleep”. Paon eyes flashed with fear and Rena bit her lip. “And if you need to talk with someone about the nightmares, I’m all ears”.

Paon smiles weakly “thanks Rena”. Rena steps outside and flies away; he waits until he’s sure she’s gone to drop the costume. 

Avvina smirked and held a cute little cat in her arms. Its fur was slightly soaking and it was giving her a mad case of stink eye. She stuck her wrist out and took a selfie with the camera feature. “Just saved a kitten from the sewer, he’s the purr-fect little friend” she mutters typing the tagline for her Avvina Instagram. The cat hisses and wiggles to get out of her grip “hey ow, that hurts you little” Avvina cried and started wrestling to keep the cat contained. 

“What are you doing?” Lune asks suddenly behind her.

Avvina screams in surprise and the cat takes the opportunity to jump out of her arms. Avvina tries to grab him but trips over the bucket she had used to douse him with water. She manages to fall in such a way that her foot hooks the bucket and swings it onto her head. From inside it she hears Lune give a small giggle and land in front of her.

Slowly Avvina removes the bucket to greet Lune’s adorable face “what are you doing out here?” she asks innocently.

Avvina jumps to her feet with a huff “for your information I was saving a cat from the sewer”.

“At the docks” Lune tilted her head in confusion.

“Yes he got caught in that drain pipe there” Avvina points to an old drain pipe that had long out of use and was now just an eyesore against the rock. It also had a grate on it that would prevent anything bigger than a bug to slip past. But Lune didn’t need to know that.

“How did that cat get past the grate?” Lune asks making Avvina tense. 

“You can see it? I thought you were-I mean I”

Lune smirked “thought I was blind as a bat?” Avvina took a step back horrified to feel her face heat up. 

Avvina gestures to her own eyes “but your eyes are-you know…”

Lune giggles this time “it’s a trick to fool unsuspecting enemies into underestimating me, I can see just as much as you can”. She throws in a wink as she finishes and Avvina’s heart attempts to leap out of her throat. “So are you joining the knights tonight? We’re meeting up at the school” Lune tucked some of her orange hair behind her ear. 

“Please as if I want Raion barking orders at me, I’m a free range bird” Avvina stuck her chest out. 

“Well she is the leader, and compared to some people I know she’s very reasonable” Lune states matter of factly. She pulls out a tiny version of her violin from her pocket and with a click it grows to full size. She turns it on its back and a cell phone screen lights up “she’s set up training sessions for the next few weeks and even has some one on one with me to help with my echolocation” she shows Avvina and a foxy smirk grows on her face.

“Are you telling me you can’t control your own powers, you know I was a master of mine after the first night”. She takes a step closer to Lune enjoying the wide eyed fear that flashed on her face. Avvina forced her back until her foot was slipping off the edge towards the water. “Maybe I could help you and you can ditch those knights altogether” Lune’s face grows warm and her wings slowly spread apart.

Lune grabs Avvina and uses her wings to flip their positions around. Avvina loses her balance in surprise and Lune quickly catches her. The tip of Avvina’s hair touches the surface of the water, but Avvina is too distracted to notice. Lune had her dipped like they were ballroom dancing, her lips slightly parted. “You’d like that wouldn’t you?” Lune purred leaning in until they were a kiss apart. Lune yanks her up and spins her once then holds her out at an arm’s length. “But I am a knight of sin, and I’m late for our meeting”. 

Avvina crashes and reboots while Lune turns and hovers above the water. She bounces into a defensive position “you think the knights are all cool well…I’m mighty cool without those noobs”. 

Did she seriously just use the word noob? Avvina inwardly cringes at her lameness. Lune giggles again “oh yes you are most certainly something”. A shadow flies over Lune’s head and they glance up to see Rena Rouge flying past. Lune’s eyes flashed with excitement and Avvina huffs. “I wonder if we’ll ever get to fight together, it would be a dream come true” Lune sighs touching the sides of her face.

“Well here’s your wake up call, the knights and the miraculous heroes are enemies” Avvina snaps suddenly in Lune’s face. “So Rena hates you so long as you’re a knight” Avvina smirked at her sting, although the hurt on Lune’s face didn’t give her the same shot of pleasure it normally did. “But maybe I can put in a good word for you, after all Rena and I are the best of friends” she closes her eyes and tilts her chin to the sky waiting for Lune to fall at her feet.

There’s a moment of silence and Avvina reopens her eyes to find Lune had vanished. She scowls for a moment, how dare that bat actually get hurt by her words. She took off into the air the way she had seen Rena flying. The fox better have good news.

The next morning Sabine is just about to open the bakery when a thud is heard from the back room. She drops her keys and rushes to the sound. Her husband Tom was on the floor holding his left foot in pain with a bag of flour lying beside him. He takes his shoe off to see an angry black bruise on his skin which makes Sabine gasp. “Don’t mind me, just being a butterfingers” Tom says moving to stand but the moment he puts weight on the foot he flinches. 

Sabine moves closer to his injury “this is a nasty bruise, how long have you had it?” Tom gestured to the flour bag but Sabine doesn’t buy that. Bruises aren’t black until they’re a few days old. 

Unseen by either of them is a pair of large buggy eyes watching them from under a shelf of supplies. Sabine tests where the flesh hurt “this looks deep enough that your toe could be broken, stay here and I’ll grab some ice”. Tom nods knowing there was no arguing with her and allows her to prop the foot up on an apron. He leans back and jumps at a skittering sound coming towards him. A moth the size of a pug charged towards him. He gasps and tries to crawl away and gets rewarded by his foot screaming in pain. Despite his best efforts the moth jumps on his foot and absorbs into it. 

Sabine comes back in with a bag of ice to find Tom standing with his skin flushed. “Get away” he whispers leaning on the supply shelf. 

“Tom, what’s wrong?” Sabine takes a step closer.

“I SAID GET AWAY” Tom shouts looking up at her. To her horror his eyes had been replaced by large black dots, his arm stretched unnaturally looking like bread dough. “GET AWAY, GET AWAY!!” he throws a bag of flour towards her and she bolts out of the room.

She slams the door behind her as he continued to grow. There was only one thing on her mind, get Marinette to safety. With speed that would make an Olympian runner blush she runs up the stairs grabbing a red backpack she had by her bedroom door. She rips out a rope from the mountain climbing adventure they had last weekend. The walls start to crack as she climbs the final flight of stairs and into Marinette’s room. 

Marinette doesn’t have the chance to ask what’s wrong before Sabine grabs her. She climbs up to the balcony, wraps the hook end of the rope around the metal railing and jumps off the edge. Marionette clings to her for dear life as they slide down to the ground. Marinette gasps as they land and Sabine lets go “what’s going-“

A giant bread dough creature bursts from the bakery with a mighty roar. His mouth and eyes made from chocolate. It raises an arm and it fires a stream of dough at another building. It slides off it having transformed it into a giant cake with pink frosting. 

The power of a corrupt is almost instant; the ground becomes a bright pink cookie. Plants become lollipops and delicious goodies. Marinette and her mom are less than excited to see an army of gingerbread men march towards them with loafs of baguettes for weapons. 

“Well this akuma certainly takes the cake” Marinette blurts as the soldiers close in.


	13. Do you know the muffin man?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The city of lights becomes the city of sweets and Sabine is best character

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Funny how were dad aired the day after I last posted, I made Tom a corrupt because I didn't think it was possible for him to be akumatized.

Chapter 13 Do you know the muffin man?  
Sabine runs over to a bush with several giant lollipops and pulls one out. She smashes the candy part on the ground and points the now jagged and sharp candy at the army like a lance. “Marinette, get behind me” she orders and Marinette doesn’t argue. The closest ginger bread man moves to stab them with his weapon and Sabine reacts. With a kung fu cry she slices the bread to pieces with the lollipop and kicks the gingerbread man down. Marinette watches in awe as her mom then disarms and defeats three more cookies in a blink of an eye. She lines up a kick and sends several lines of cookie men down like dominoes. 

The giant dough creature roars and with a raise of his arms two giant chocolate cakes rise from the earth. They rumble and shake then spew out boiling chocolate goodness. “Lava cakes” Sabine gasps and grabs Marinette’s arm. The soldiers rush to the sides to avoid the lava and prevent the two from escaping that way. The lava chases them down the sugary streets until they’re blocked by a river of caramel 

Sabine quickly scans the area, the caramel was rapidly moving making swimming dangerous. The buildings had been turned into useless cake that the lava was easily destroying. Her eyes fall to the ground at the cookies and gumdrops. They were too small to use as rafts. For once Sabine doesn’t have a plan and the lava was getting closer. She balled her hands into fists, her daughter was in danger and her husband was being used by a demon. She had to do something and do it fast.  
A butterfly absorbs into her apron, Sabine gasps as her vision is tinted by lavender. “The city has been turned into a candy wonderland. It needs a champion who is the perfect mix of sugar and spice. Can I count on you?” 

Sabine doesn’t hesitate “you can”. Marinette has the biggest smile on her face as her mom is covered in a lavender cloud. Right as it shatters Marinette is scooped up and white icing blasts them both up towards safety. 

They land on the Bourgeois hotel rooftop, which had been turned into a variety of sugary goodies including an ice cream sandwich and a solid caramel bottom. Marinette puts her feet down and looks up at Chrysalid’s newest champion “wow mom you look incredible”

Sabine wore a speed skating outfit that was white with bright blue streaks on her arms and legs. She had two white guns at her sides and large teal ice skates. Her helmet had a small yellow tiara and she had a teal mask with sheen like they were frosted. She had also become huge, as tall as Tom but still had her modest slender frame. “I am the Icing queen” she announces proudly putting her arms on her hips. She has a gentle smile and gets on one knee to be at Marinette’s eye level. “But to you I am still your mother, so get somewhere safe and don’t get into trouble”.

“I will” Marinette promises knowing full well she wasn’t going to do that. But it’s enough to fool Icing who skates to the edge and uses the guns to fire a solid icing trail for her to skate on. 

 

“I have to give Mr. Agreste some credit, he does know how to hide things” Rena mutters typing away on a laptop she had brought with her.

“This is a guy who used butterflies as his fashion label while being a butterfly super villain” Avvina countered looking over Rena’s shoulder. 

“I’ve checked super market footage, highway cameras, and even hacked into Adrian’s cameramen’s files. I can’t find anything” Rena threw her arms out frustrated. 

Avvina stuck her lips out impressed but she didn’t let Rena see. She walked away pretending to stretch “well keep searching, there must be a clue somewhere to where the Nathalie is”. 

“I can’t” 

Avvina puffed her cheeks out “and why is that?”

“Well for starters my laptop is now a cookie” 

Avvina spins around and sure enough. Rena’s laptop was now a laptop shaped sugar cookie with frosting creating the keys. “What the…” Avvina mutters as Rena breaks a piece off and offers her a chunk. Avvina takes a bite of the cookie while Rena stands up and looks over the edge.

“This must be the work of a corrupt, they’re strong enough to change entire cities in seconds” Rena makes a fist and crumbles the cookie to dust. 

Avvina joins her to see the streets of candy with cars made of bread. Before she can make a sarcastic comment screams make Rena’s ears perk. To their left was a daycare that had been turned into a giant crème brulee. The kids inside were swimming to the edges of the bowl able to hold on but unable to climb out. 

“Come on, I’ll get the ones on the left-“

“Uh I can’t” Avvina cuts her off. Rena makes a cute annoyed groan. “When I was younger I almost drowned in custard at my uncles world famous restaurant, I can’t go near liquid desserts”.

“You know half of being a hero is facing things that scare you” Rena puts a hand on Avvina’s shoulder. Avvina jumps back and her cape flares out into its wings. 

“I’m not afraid” 

Rena moves in till their foreheads are almost touching “prove it”. 

“I don’t have to prove anything to you” Avvina snaps and moves to the edge of the roof. “We’ll continue this once Paon has beaten the corrupt, later” she flies off without another word.

Rena growled and put one hand on her forehead in the shape of an L with her tongue out for good measure. “Well can’t say you didn’t try” Queen Bee says from behind, Rena jumps at least three feet in the air.

“BEE…uh how long have you been there?” 

Bee shrugs “not long” she holds up the candy rope she had in her left hand “now could you help me carve out a raft?” Rena looks down the rope to see it was holding up the largest piece of chocolate she had ever seen. 

A large shadow passes over the kids and plunges into the dessert. Rena sits on a carved out seat on the candy and leans over to help the kids onto the ride. “Please keep your hands and feet inside the chocolate at all times and thank you for choosing bee airlines” Rena announces making a few shaken kids calm down. Bee grunts and lifts the candy and kids into the air and Rena assists in keeping it steady.

Once they were on the ground Bee notices something odd “where are your caretakers? Shouldn’t they be with you?”

A kid who was about four is first to speak “they disappeared when everything became sweets”. 

“We can’t leave them here unsupervised, they could get hurt” Rena says stepping beside Bee. “You can watch them right?” Before Bee can answer Rena is has already shot into the air. 

“Wait I can’t handle kids” Bee cries helplessly after her, but the fox is long gone. “I know how to punch stuff, not babysit” she whines uselessly. She groans then turns back to the kids with a smile so wide it’s a littler unnerving “so uh…what do you guys want to do?”

The same kid raises his hand “I want to eat that house” he points to a giant gingerbread house. Bee gulps as the kids start pointing out other sugary things they wanted to eat.

She sighs and shrugs “okay go nuts, but don’t come crying to me if you get a stomach ache”. The kids do in fact go nuts while Bee creates a chair out of marshmallow and helps herself to a handful of cotton candy from a bush. 

Tutti couldn’t talk when they were transformed, but Avvina could feel his disapproving gaze on her as she flew over Paris. She crossed her arms and pouted. It wasn’t like she lied to Rena; she did have a bad history with creamy desserts. Her mind flashed to her 6th birthday party where she ended up crying with a bowl of vanilla pudding on her head. She’s thankfully brought out of her thoughts by the sounds of someone crying for help. She spots an orange head sticking out of a giant cinnamon bun. 

Sabrina struggled to free herself from the massive bun but it held firm. Great, if she didn’t get out her new friends were going to be disappointed. A shadow falls over her and she looks though half frosted glasses at Avvina. “You look like a pumpkin there, need a talon” Avvina jokes bending low to grab at Sabrina’s exposed shoulders.

Sabrina notices something behind her, another cinnamon bun with a gun at the front like a tank. It turned towards them and fired a stream of frosting “Avvina, look out!”

Avvina turns and shoots to the sky, the frosting blast smacks into Sabrina instead. Her glasses fall off and her eyes are the only thing not covered in frosting. She glares daggers at Avvina doing tricks in the air to dodge more tank fire. She laughs and two hoops pop into her hands. She flips over fire and tosses the hoops onto the first tanks barrel. It tries to fire but the hoops prevent it from doing so. The pressure builds and the bun explodes. The next three have the same fate and she moves to hit the last one.

“WAIT” Sabrina cries wiggling and getting an arm free “I’m still in here”.

Avvina plugs the barrel anyway and grabs Sabrina. Right as it was about to explode the bread cracks allowing Avvina to fly them to safety. She lands back down on the gooey remains “see nothing to worry about pumpkin”. She looks down and groans “great you got frosting on my costume”.

Sabrina huffs and wiggles out of Avvina’s grip “well maybe I wouldn’t have if you saved me from the frosting blast” she mutters wiping some off her hair. 

“What?” and take it for myself” 

“You could have blocked it or gotten me out of there with you” Sabrina was getting some mad Chloe vibes off the birdbrain. Based off Wixxin muttering a curse in a dead language she must have felt the same. 

Avvina rolled her eyes “I got you out of there at all, you should be more grateful”. She bends down and picks up Sabrina’s glasses. She wipes the frosting off and offers them to Sabrina.

Sabrina sighed and took her glasses “thank you for saving me”.

Avvina smirked and put her hands on her hips “oh you’re so welcome pumpkin”.

The parts of Sabrina’s face not covered in frosting turn bright red “and my name isn’t pumpkin, it’s Sabrina”. Avvina suddenly takes off into the air; the wind she caused blows the rest of the frosting off. 

“Love to stick around but I have more people to save, later” Avvina throws a peace sign and flies away. Sabrina clenches her fists and lets out a big breath. There were bigger buns to bake at the moment. 

Paon took a few steps on the roof of the now cake school and stared at his wrist. There was a new edition to his costume that being the rock Charlotte had given him. It had wrapped around him when he transformed and no amount of pulling would remove it. Luckily it didn’t interfere with gliding, it was just another thing to wonder about. He flips his fans out and takes to the air. Paon closed his eyes and reopened them with his iris’s orange, his vision changing to the one of crazy colours again. He flapped the fans to stay in the air as he scanned down below, but nothing stood out. He slowed than landed on what used to be the top of the Eiffel tower. The corrupt had changed it into a birthday cake with a candle at the top. He taps his earpiece “I’m not seeing him Ladybug, any luck on your end?” 

“I’m seeing sugar and spice but nothing nice” Ladybug answers swinging next to Icing and landing on the Arc de Triomphe. “How does a muffin man the size of a building disappear?”

“Maybe it’s because he has great camouflage” Carapace adds popping his head out from a sewer drain. “I mean he made the sewer smell like cotton candy, it’s amazing”. He grabs the manhole cover and it breaks apart in his hands. It had been transformed into a fluffy Oreo cookie. “I never thought a manhole cover would taste so good” he adds with a mouth full of cookie cake.

“Do not eat the manhole” Ladybug orders and earns a confused look from Icing. “Just keep looking and please refrain from eating Paris” she pinches her nose still amazed by the kind of things this job made her say. 

“Yeah Carapace, no pigging out” Paon says with a mouth full of cake from the Eiffel tower cake. He licks the frosting off his gloves “Chat is totally missing out”.

“Paon” Ladybug warns.

“Come on LB, let them eat cake” Rena teases taking a slice out a tree. Chocolate with a fudgy inside, oh is only Trixx could taste this. A few of their class members were gathered around the park eating everything in sight. 

“I have a thought” Paon announced taking off into the skies to glide.

“Oh no” Carapace chirps and holds back a burp.

Paon ignores him “you said he was all doughy right? What if he’s like baking somewhere?” 

Icing and Ladybug’s eyes light up “he would need someplace huge, dark and warm” they say at the same time. Almost identically they spot it and grin at each other “The volcano!”

“And here I thought it would be my a-“

“Don’t finish that Shelly” Rena warns shaking a finger even though no one was in front of her.

“What can you expect? I’m literally in the gutter” the breadstick ladder suddenly breaks and Carapace falls down with a scream. There’s a splosh sound followed by him spitting out a liquid “gross its flat cream soda”.

“Dude it could have been so much worse” Paon mutters changing direction towards the volcano. His eyes spot some familiar faces and he changes course to them. 

Raion slices though a giant marshmallow and steps though the carnage. Licorne takes a moment to scoop some of the marshmallow into a gram cracker with a piece of chocolate inside “told you you’d make great smores“. She chirps in between sticky bites. 

“I told you that’s not what our powers are for” Raion hisses turning to Gorm for backup only to see he was also eating a smore and had marshmallow all over his face. She looks to Lune to find she was without a smore but was accepting one from Licorne. She slaps her forehead “don’t you guys see what’s happening? This is our chance to truly win over Paris and establish the knights as heroes”. 

“Maybe they’d accept us if we worked with Ladybug and the others…” Lune says quietly. Raion moves towards her so quickly the heat from her breath makes Lune squeak. 

“Ladybug committed an unforgivable crime; did your kwami neglect to tell you?” 

“No she told me but-“

“What crime?” Paon asks falling in between Raion and Lune. Raion’s ears pressed back unsure, on one paw he was a member of the miraculous hero’s. On the other he was the only one who wasn’t present the night of the crime. He had the right to know that his leader was a monster.

Ladybug, Carapace, Rena, Chrysalid and Icing all peeked over giant banana bread at the volcano. Up close the volcano had pathways carved out making it look like a chocolate castle. There were batches of gingerbread men with their life sized gummy bear pets on guard. “This is definitely the place, Paon where are you?” Ladybug clicks her earpiece.  
Paon takes a moment but he responds “I’m with the knights; I’ll be there in a sec”. 

He looks back at the knights. The way Raion was so tense she looked ready to combust, the way Licorne had her hands grasped in front of her pleading with him to understand. He chews the inside of his cheek trying to find his voice. 

“I know it seems crazy” Gorm steps in quietly. “But my kwami felt him being destroyed that night; none of them can sense him anymore”.

“It doesn’t make any sense” Paon muttered crossing his arms. “I know for a fact that the envy miraculous is still in one piece”.

“How” Raion growls stepping into Paon’s personal space. “Purrde has a connection to every sin kwami, and she can’t feel his presence”.

First year Paon would have shrank away, nervously stuttered out an apology and left it at that. But this was third year Paon, and telling a stubborn lioness that what she knew was wrong was nothing. “I don’t know why she can’t sense him, but I can prove Ennzo is alive”.

The knights stiffen at the name. Licorne would never forget waking up during the night to hear Miyuu sobbing that name in her sleep. Gorm knew the name from times he watched Irrin talk to the moon when he thought he was asleep. Raion stumbled as Purrde for a moment lost her composure, flooding her mind with memories of both the knight and the kwami. Purrde quickly plastered her emotions behind a wall and Raion slashed at the ground to hide the tears in her eyes. 

Paon took a step back but showed no fear when Raion jabbed her sword his direction. “Then you will prove it, tonight at the Notre Dame”.

“I will” Paon promises putting his hand on his chest. His hand doesn’t touch the miraculous and for a moment he forgets its now in his hair. Gorm taps his own head to remind him and he chuckles embarrassed. 

Before the knights can say anything else a licorice arrow flies in and sticks into a marshmallow. Paon turns quickly and his back feathers spring up, the gingerbread army had found them. But now they had licorice archers and cannons filled with pie. 

“Knights battle formations” Raion orders only for a large pie to come flying their way making them scatter. 

“Licorne, Gorm, come with me” Paon orders and rushes up the side of a giant bun. They follow as he launches over the army and slices the arrows fired at them by spinning like a top. Once he lands he slides to take out several men. Gorm plays an epic solo to ice over the cannons and Paon smirks at Licorne “it’s a real head banger isn’t it?”

“Yeah, really makes me want to just” Licorne swings her head forward. The motion flings her ponytail forward and it smashes cannon into several men. Her mouth is wide open while Paon’s smirk just grows. With an adorable glee Licorne’s sword fighting is abandoned for head banging. 

Raion ducks to avoid cookie pieces flown her way “Licorne watch your surroundings”. She pounces into battle and the gingerbread men are destroyed by the flames of her sword. She leaves a path of destruction which is all fine and dandy until she lands with her body too hot and she sinks into the chocolate. 

“As should you hot head” Gorm teases landing in front of her and helping her out.

Paon blows back the last of the men towards Licorne. She unleashes her lasso and spins in a circle. The lasso rips the cookies apart and she poses with her arms out. “And that’s the way the cookie crumbles” Paon chirps landing next to her to give her a fist bump.

“Where did those cookies come from?” Gorm asks coming up to them with Raion beside him.

“Over here” Lune cries waving her hands. The group makes their way over to find she was standing in front of a cave made of donuts and bon bons. “I defeated two trying to retreat this way” Lune announces pointing to it.

“Good eye Lune” Paon says peeking inside, Lune lights up with glee. “Looks like we’ll need a light, Raion”

Everyone looks back at Raion who was licking the chocolate off her hand like a cat. She froze with her tongue still out upon realizing she was caught. “Uh right, let’s go” she swings her sword up like a torch and marches inside. Paon waits until everyone else has gone in and clicks his ear piece. 

“Change of plans. The knights and I have found a back entrance, I’ll let you know if it leads anywhere” Paon replies following behind the knights. Raion at the front lit the way with Gorm next to her keeping the chocolate cool and solid. 

Ladybug nodded “okay good luck”. She glances over at Rena and Carapace doing rock paper scissors to decide who would be the decoy, Carapace loses. “Does everyone know the plan?” 

Icing spins her guns like a cowgirl “ready to ice the competition”.

The two front guards tense as two gingerbread men approach them with Ladybug and Icing in front of them with their hands up in surrender. “HALT, state your destination” the first guard snaps and they both block the doors with their breadsticks. 

“We are going to drop off these prisoners, Ladybug and Chrysalid’s champion” Sugar Rena answered holding up Ladybug’s yo-yo.

The second guard has a jack o lantern grin and leans its face towards Icing. “Once again the champion is without her creator, how does it feel being abandoned by the Hawk moth wannabe?”

Icing doesn’t reply, eyes darting everywhere to avoid looking the cookie in the eye. Sugar Chrysalid growls and Sugar Rena has to kick her from behind so she kept up the act. “Now let us through” she orders the first guard.

He stares at her “what bakery do you come from?”

They freeze for a moment “the one on Dairy Lane?” Rena guesses at the same time Chrysalid goes “the one on Drury Lane”.

The guard frowns and leans towards them “what is it? Dairy or Drury” the air grows thick and Ladybug tugs twice at her left pigtail.

“I’LL SAVE YOU LADYBUG” Carapace cries running towards them. The guards look away from the crew long enough for Icing to grab her guns from Chrysalid and ice them against the door. She then fires at the distracted guards around them and even hits the ground which makes it too slippery for a gummy bear to charge. Rena and Chrysalid drop the illusions trying to shove the doors open. Carapace catches up with them and just throws himself through the door shield first. 

“How could you get the rhyme mixed up? It’s Dairy Lane” Rena cries as they run inside the volcano castle. It was a series of tunnels made of chocolate cake that were quiet narrow, they could only run two at a time. 

“I’m pretty sure it’s Drury Lane” Chrysalid argues pulling up wiki on her wrist to search it up. Ladybug swats it down.

“We don’t have time for that, we need to find the” a huge tremor cuts her off. The group gasps as a wave of chocolate lava flows toward them at an alarming pace. Ladybug thinks fast and spins her yo-yo so fast it cuts though the cake walls to the outside. But that wouldn’t be enough to redirect all of it. She grabs Carapace and throws him to the front “CARAPACE USE SHELL-TER”.

“Shell-ter” Carapace echo’s confused, his shield lights up and on instinct he holds it out in front of him. A green force field surrounds the team, seconds before the lava reaches them. It thuds against the shield and is forced out the hole Ladybug had made. Rena squeals and records the event with her flute. The shield drops once the lava had all poured out.

Ladybug sighs in relief while Rena and Carapace nearly explode from excitement. “Since when could you do that?” Rena asks.

“I’ll explain later, we should hurry before the next eruption. Carapace, go find somewhere to recharge” Ladybug takes off before anyone could argue.

“Alya is going to be all over us for this” Rena chirps throwing Carapace a wink.

Carapace blushes slightly “yeah…wait us? What can you do?” Rena is already running away when he looks back up. If he didn’t know any better he would have thought that fox and Alya were twins.

Rena giggles hurrying to meet up with the others; Ladybug was going to flip when she showed off her new trick. She turns a corner and smacks straight into Icing who had frozen in place, “what’s the holdup girls?”

“That” Ladybug whispers and pointed down to the giant muffin man. He was at the bottom of a deep shaft with an ember glow underneath him. The dough had baked into nice crusty bread that made it look like he wore thick armour. He gave a loud snore that shook the volcano and made everyone’s hair stand up frizzy. 

“And I thought his snoring was bad before” Icing mutters pressing her hair back down. 

“The mark has to be somewhere, check around” Ladybug hooked her yo-yo and lowered herself down. The group lands on the Muffin man’s belly careful not to stir him. Ladybug clicked her earpiece “Paon, how’s things on your end?”

“Well when they say the early bird gets the worm this isn’t what I expected” Paon deadpans. He and the knights were running for their lives away from a giant gummy worm. Licorne was screaming while carrying her ponytail in her arms. Parts were already bitten off like cotton candy. Lune was having a time choosing between running and flying, her wings continued to flap even with her feet on the ground. This resulted in looking like she was in low gravity. Gorm was carrying Raion on his back while she fought to get free.

“Let me go this is finally a challenge” Raion cries childishly.

“You can fight when we’re not at risk of being crushed” Gorm replies jumping over a chocolate bar rock. The walls were shaking from the worm’s force and the tunnel was bound to collapse at any moment. 

Ladybug cringed as a loud thump is heard followed by Paon shouting something in German. “Once you get away get yourselves here. We found Muffin man, I’m sending you my location now” she clicks on her yo-yo. 

Rena spots the black mark covered by mounds of thick crusted bread, she gently taps it to find it wasn’t going to give easy. “Hey Ladybug we may have a problem”.

Suddenly there’s a loud ding and Muffin man opens his eye. He spots the girls and lets out a growl. “Uh hi honey…” Icing blurts with a nervous wave. 

“Sheesh are they done yet?” Avvina mutters spinning over to her back. Neat thing she had learned about her wings, so long as there was hot air from below she didn’t need to put in any effort to stay airborne. And the air above the volcano was just the right temperature. She flipped back over use her extended sight to see the streets below, nothing too exciting. Bee was having an ice cream fight with some kids. She totally creams a kid in the back and a bunch gang up on her. She’s left looking like a snow woman. 

Suddenly the hot wind increases sending Avvina skyrocketing into the clouds. She summersaults out of the steam all while screaming her head off. Her wings cling to her sides and she’s thrown into a free fall. “FLAP, FLAP” she commands covering her eyes. Her momentum stops and she opens her eyes to find she was fine. She breathes a sigh of relief and looks over at the volcano that dared blow her off like that. The curse she was thinking drops seeing a giant bread monster in place of the volcano. In one hand he had Ladybug and Rena, the other Chrysalid and Icing. 

Chrysalid swings her sword and cuts his fingers off and Icing glides them over to free Ladybug and Rena. Muffin man roars and a giant baguette on his back flips onto his shoulder like a gun. It fires raisin bullets at Icing. Icing creates a slide for the others and glides around Muffin man “over here honey bun” she cries sticking out her tongue.

 

“Where’s the exit?” Lune cries and her boot is almost chomped by the gummy worm. 

“Almost there” Paon announces spotting sunlight up ahead. Licorne increases her speed and trips over her feet. She crashes into Lune who crashes into Gorm and Raion who crashes into Paon. They burst out of the cave in a ball of limbs and fall to the ground with a splat. They uncurl into a pile with Paon sitting on top rubbing his head. 

The worm lets out a roar as it emerges and looms over them like a snake. Paon moves his fan to block its mouth when suddenly a container of liquid nitrogen falls on the worm’s head. A ring wrapped around the middle increases pressure until the container explodes. The liquid nitrogen covers the worm and it screams in horror. The worm moves back trying to shake the can off; its movement slows until it’s completely frozen. 

Raion walks over to the worm and gently bumps it with her sword. The worm cracks then shatters into a thousand pieces “so much for that” she mutters putting her sword back in its scabbard.

“Never mind that, let’s go take down muffin man” Paon orders helping Licorne to her feet. Raion follows his fans direction at the giant not far away, she smirks and runs after him. Lune dropped a part of the liquid nitrogen container to follow after them. 

Icing and Rena were on distraction duty while Ladybug thought up a plan. Rena grinned and held her flute up to her lips “now’s my chance”. She blew the notes to the spell and the end glowed “Camo-“

Muffin man slaps Rena between his hands like a bug. He pinches her wilted form with newly grown fingers and throws her into a pool of vanilla pudding. It acts like quick sand and the more she struggles the deeper she sinks. In seconds she’s up to her ears in pudding. She’s about to cry for Ladybug when a donut falls in front of her. She manages to grabs hold of it and she’s dragged out. Rena coughs out some pudding and looks up at her savior. 

Lune bat had a nervous smile while Licorne beamed and wiped some pudding off her lasso. Licorne bumps Lune and she stuck her hand out while staring at the ground. To her surprise Rena takes it and grins at her. “Thanks for the save guys, I didn’t get to say it the other day but I love your wings. How do you manage to stay in the air without constantly needing to flap? Is it like a jet pack? How high can you go?” Rena has an adorable look on her face that makes Licorne giggle.

“I uh, I don’t know” Lune squeaks hiding her smile in her hands. 

Icing Queen created a path between Muffin man’s legs and zipped up to his shoulder. He roars and smashes her path. She falls for a second before recreating a path with a laugh. The butterfly mask flickers in front of her face. “Careful Icing, he almost had you” Chrysalid cries biting at her fingernails despite gloves being in the way.

“Don’t you worry sweet heart, I’m not even baking a sweat” Icing chirps though the butterfly mask. Chrysalid groans and slaps her forehead. 

“Lucky charm” Ladybug catches a butter knife and stares at it confused. She spots Paon gliding above them and he passes by a giant stack of pancakes. This had a giant glob of butter on top. She clicks her ear piece “Paon can you get those pancakes rolling?”

“Piece of cake” Paon says dropping down and slicing at the sweets until the pancakes slid down to where Ladybug wanted them. She nods to Chrysalid who tells Icing the next part of the plan.

“Time to put the icing on the cake” Icing announces jumping in front of Muffin man and giving him a full blast of her icing guns. Muffin man stumbles back but gets a good footing before he could fall. “It’s not enough Ladybug” Icing grunts increasing the pressure. 

“Knights of sin, ATTACK” Raion cries and points her sword at the sky. Gorm flies up next to Icing and nods to Raion. Her miraculous lit up with all but two streaks of sun glowing.

She lets out a tremendous roar at the same time Gorm activates ocean’s wrath. The combined icy water and fire is too much for the Muffin man to take. He stumbles back and steps on the butter. With a yelp he slips and crashes on the ground below. He groans then closes his eyes.

Chrysalid and Raion nod and use their swords on Muffin man’s foot. They have to dig but soon the sucking from the hole begins. Icing pounces in and grabs them. Then moves everyone else but Paon together and surrounds them in a dome of icing. It was secure enough that the black hole had no effect on them. “Nice thinking Icing” Rena compliments licking some pudding off her glove. 

“Thanks but it was Chrysalid’s idea, she’s a smart cookie” Icing chirps earning a laugh and a groan from everyone. 

Paon finds Tom’s bubble easily enough, he takes aim and fires. The room is flooded with light and he closes his eyes. Suddenly giant hands grab his shoulders and he reopens them to find Tom was responsible. “My family, are they alright? Is Marionette alright?” he shakes Paon slightly.

“They’re fine, Ladybug said they were safe” Paon calmly states and Tom thankfully let go. 

“Thank goodness, I couldn’t live with myself if I hurt them” Tom admits wiping his eye.

“Well you might have given Marionette a stomach ache” Paon joked pulling out his next arrow. Tom chuckles in his throat and puts his hand on it. The arrow absorbs him into it and the arrow changed to a brilliant brown. Right on schedule the smoke demon appears and snarls at him. Paon smirks and fires the arrow before the demon could escape. 

The icing dome crumbles in time for everyone to gawk at the giant northern lights peacock. It picks up the muffin man and he disappears into its wings. With a blast of light Tom and Paon are on the ground. Icing races over to Tom and pounces on him.

Tom’s mouth is ajar as Icing helps him to his feet. “Whoa who are you?” 

“I’m the icing to your cake” Icing giggles and plants a kiss on his lips. The butterfly flies out of her apron and the sudden height change makes them fall over. They get covered in dusting sugar and they burst out laughing. 

Ladybug covers her face in embarrassment and Paon taps her on the shoulder. He wiggles his last arrow and she nods with a chuckle.

“Miraculous Ladybug” 

That night Paon flew down to the bell tower in Notre Dame half listening to Ladybug’s message on his phone fan. “Tom says it was a giant moth that changed him, I need you guys to be on a lookout for any more of them”.

He clicks it off without a word, maybe they needed to create a really big lamp. He snickers to himself and falls into the bell tower. He runs his hand across one of the giant bells “Raion are you here?” 

A lion’s growl is his answer; Paon backs up as a glowing yellow lioness approaches him from behind the bell. “Where is he?” her voice snapped in his head. Paon flinches and the lioness flashes her teeth “where is Ennzo?” Paon slips and finds himself seated in front of a lion’s teeth. 

Miyuu suddenly flies between them “Purrde stop, he’s not like Ladybug”.

Purrde lets out another growl “why have you come? What if he set up a trap?” 

“Is that not what you’ve done” Miyuu countered “if Paon wanted to hurt me he would have back in the smoothie shop”. 

Purrde huffs and glares at them. But she does sit back to give Paon some space. Paon gets a grip and pulls the choker out from his back pocket. “I tried to activate him but he wouldn’t respond” he watches Miyuu gently touch the snake’s eye and muffles a whimper.

“He’s alive…” Miyuu starts to cry and more kwami fly out from the shadows. Paon mouth dropped in awe never having seen so many kwami in one place before. One by one they touch the miraculous and feel what tiny energy was emitting from the miraculous. 

Purrde lets out a whimper before she can help it. The others part and Paon reaches his hand though to her. Purrde growls at first but her eyes focus on the miraculous he held. They trailed up to his wrist then to his face with his red hair hanging over one shoulder. Purrde bent her head low and placed her forehead on his hand. Her body glowed even brighter and Paon had to shield his eyes.

When it died down Purrde is in her normal kwami form and holding the envy miraculous in her paws. “He’s alive but weak, he needs to recharge in our box”. 

“Where is it?” Paon asks moving to sit criss crossed. Wixxin sits on one knee while Irrin sat on the other. 

The kwami all share a concerned look, Wixxin is first to respond “it was stolen a long time ago. We haven’t seen it in a long time”.

“So there’s nothing we can do?” 

“We can hope he can recharge on his own” Irrin says flying off Paon to touch the miraculous once more. He looks at Purrde and after a moment of hesitation she nods. He takes the miraculous from her and puts it in Paon’s hand. “Hold onto it for us, we know it’s in rightful hands” he offers a smile which looks rather silly on a tiny orca. 

Wixxin gives Paon a gentle smile then turns to the miraculous “be strong Ennzo, the new world is big and scary, but beautiful too”. She gives the snake head a kiss than flies off back to her wielder. 

Irrin is next “Ennzo, we miss you buddy…but we’re so glad you’re alive” his voice cracks slightly at the end and he sucks up tears. He pats the necklace and rockets off.

Miyuu kisses the miraculous “hope to see you soon Ennzo”. She flies up and kisses Paon on the cheek “and thank you for everything”. 

And then it’s just Paon and Purrde. Even when tiny Paon feels heat from her stare “do you understand the importance of keeping him safe? If he so much as falls off the shelf I will find you and burn you”.

Paon has a small smile despite sweat dripping down his neck “I understand. I’ll keep him safe” his mind flashes to Rena holding it in his room. He makes a metal note to find a better hiding spot for it. 

Purrde relaxes slightly “thank you”. She drops down to the miraculous and touches the snake head. If she says anything Paon doesn’t hear it, she takes one last look at him and flies away.  
Paon stands up and rolls the miraculous in his hands. The moonlight catching off the eye making it look the metal itself was alive. He wondered if Ennzo could see out of the gem. Duusu had once told him that Kwami could use their wielders senses sometimes when transformed. He knew she used the taste one today. He couldn’t transform with the snake but maybe…

Kagami steps out of the church and adjusts her hoodie so Purrde could see. They watch Paon leap out of the building with a flash of purple coming from his neck.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I decided it was time at least some of the sin kwami knew Ennzo was alive.  
> I think my next chapter will be my telling of the chameleon, where I'm going to do something Lila might not want but does need.


	14. Chameleon

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I realised while reading another fic that I have been spelling Marinette's name wrong for a long time. I've been spelling it like the puppet. I've gone back and fixed it in this fiction and will be doing it with the others. I can't say I'm mad, just disappointed that it took me this long to notice.
> 
> Also I noticed on Wayhem that he has a chameleon shaped pin on his outfit, I thought for sure that would mean he'd be Chameleon. But than the episode happened and I was bummed, not just for chameleon's identity but she only shifted into like two things which was totally lame. And of course everything else that has the fandom still writing salt fics about it.

Chapter 14 Chameleon  
Inside Sabrina’s room Wixxin is helping pack Sabrina’s giant schoolbag “are you sure we need this much stuff sugar?” Wixxin asks as Sabrina uses all her strength and still the bag can’t shut tight.

“We need a lot of supplies” Sabrina reopens the bag to try and reorganize. “Pencils and pens for writing, a laptop for long reports, muscle cream for my hands when I need to do both mine and Chloe’s…” She stops and looks at Wixxin’s small smirk. “But I’m not doing Chloe’s homework anymore so” Sabrina takes out half the supplies and sets the cream down on the table.

Wixxin sits on the cream jar “you know why gluttony is kwamified as a vampire bat?” Sabrina shakes her head. “It’s because vampire bats in the wild will take more food than necessary for another from the colony when they’re sick and can’t hunt”.

“But Chloe isn’t sick, she’s just lazy” Sabrina puts her hands on her hips and her phone buzzes. She glances at it to find it was a text from Chloe, it was written more formally than normal. “She can’t even send her own texts, she must be getting her butler to do it” she tosses it with more force than needed onto the bed.

“She took advantage of your generous nature but that’s in the past” Wixxin flies over to Sabrina and lifts her chin. “The dragon now knows you were its most precious treasure, and now you’re out of reach as a star in the sky”.

Sabrina holds out a fist confidently “she can blow her flames all she wants but she can never touch me”. 

Meanwhile a blonde in a white suit stomps down a long white hallway. The only sounds are her designer heels and the snapping her of her gum. Her designer sunglasses were over her eyes despite it both being night and she was indoors. She swishes her ponytail and taps her earpiece “any luck with her?” 

“No luck my queen, will be continuing to send messages every hour as you requested” Pollen’s squeaky voice rings in her ear. “How goes mission Adrian?”

“Heading to the nest now” Chloe announces glancing at the camera following her every movement. She plucks the ear piece off spotting a sign that said no electronics were allowed. Chloe stops in front of a guard and flashes her ID in front of him. He rolls his eyes and uses his key card to open the door. Chloe strides inside and pulls the sunglasses off “hello Hawk moth”.

Mr. Agreste looks up from his book with the most bored expression “ponytail, to what do I owe the pleasure?”

Chloe blows a bubble and pops it loudly “we’re going to have a talk about my best friend, Adrian”. She takes a deep breath “he’s-“

“Going to be staying Collage Francoise DuPont, yes Adrien and I have already had this conversation” Gabriel turns a page of his book. His cold eyes leave the page for a moment to drink in her shocked expression.

“Adrian’s staying?” 

“Yes so long as he keeps up with his studies and doesn’t skip out on jobs for meaningless hobbies he is free to continue attending public school”. Gabriel marks his page and stands up “aren’t you delighted? My son will continue to be in the same school as you” he can’t help but walk behind her to enjoy every angle of her glass ego falling apart.

“He didn’t tell me” Chloe mutters as he stands behind her with an evil smirk on his face.

“Perhaps he doesn’t regard you as his best friend anymore” Gabriel purrs and Chloe gulps softly.

Chloe spins to face him with regained fire “oh don’t you start with the super villain stands behind the hero clichés. I’m not scared of you in the slightest. I’ve known you almost all my life and you’ll never be intimidating in my eyes because I know you wear giant bunny slippers and sip tea out of a poodle shaped mug!”

“As of late it’s been a turtle actually, a sweet donation from Carapace” Gabriel says coolly. 

Chloe glares at him and huffs “whatever, it doesn’t matter anyway. Adrien is going to stay at my school and make tons of friends while you rot away in this super jail for the rest of your life”. Gabriel frowns and she takes that as a victory “thanks for nothing Hawk butt”. She slams the door behind her and Gabriel has a moment to allow a chuckle.

“No, thank you Bourgeois” Gabriel peeks in his sleeve at the ear piece he had swiped out of her pocket.

Nathaniel played with his hair in thought; the air had made it rather frizzy which only somewhat annoyed him. Why was the internet considered the best place to find information? Nathaniel had searched all night but the only thing he could find on Child of Moon people was a Jagged Stone song with a similar name and a site for psychics. He had tried getting Duusu to tell him what she knew but the bird was oddly tight lipped about the subject. The most he knew about them was what she had blurted the night Charlotte had showed up. She had said they were blood thirsty witches. Maybe that meant he was related to some kind of super villain. He chuckled dryly to himself, another thing he and Adrien had in common. 

He peeked into his bag where Duusu was curled up in her nest pocket fast asleep. He put it to memory to draw later in his room where no sudden accident would lead to an identity reveal. He passes by the locker room and he hears the unmistakable sound of someone crying. Now years ago he would have kept walking, someone else’s drama wasn’t his business. But now he couldn’t ignore the sobs, he had to at least try to help.

He steps inside and he’s surprised to see the crier was Marinette, the moment she spots him she jumps up with enough arm movements Nath doesn’t see Tikki hiding back in her purse. “Hi Nath it’s just me here, all by myself” she chirps way too cheerfully for her puffy red cheeks.

“Is everything alright?” Nathaniel asks softly.

Marinette’s forced smile falls and she wipes her eyes “it’s Alya, she just …”

She trails off as both their phones get a message. Nathaniel opens his while Marinette curls into a ball on the floor. It was an invite to Alya’s birthday in a few days, nothing too out of the ordinary. Marinette holds out her phone for him to read, which stated that Marionette is not allowed to come or even to talk to Alya. 

“Alya says our friendship is over and I don’t even know what I’ve done” Marinette whimpers grabbing her purse and holding it close to her chest. 

“It does seem totally out of the blue” Nathaniel mutters sliding down the locker to sit beside her. His phone also has an update on Alya and Lila now being the best of friends. The photos felt a tinge off, like Alya had a gun pointed at the back of her head. 

“I know everyone thinks I’m jealous but Lila is-“

“A liar, believe me after sitting next to her last year either she’s telling stories or she has over a thousand uncles each with epic talents, more childhood injuries that change details every minute and at least thirty pets that aren’t even legal.” Nathaniel cuts her off with a small smile.

Marinette chuckles softly “I’m glad I’m not the only one who sees it…but I thought you were like part of her fan club.”

Nathaniel shakes his head “no definitely not, I just let her talk because if I didn’t she would tell Mme Mendeliev of the harpy drawings I make of her. Besides, it’s not like her lies are really harmful. They’re just annoying”.

Marinette wipes her eyes with a tissue that stuck out of her purse. “I wouldn’t say that. She threatened to turn everyone against me” fresh tears sprang from her eyes “I never thought she would get Alya…” 

Nathaniel didn’t speak for a moment. He had long since removed Marinette from the pedestal of perfection. She could be meddling, stubborn and obsessive at the best of times. And he was about fifty percent sure she had stolen his phone at some point last year. But Marinette was kind and thoughtful at her core; she really was as Adrian once said the everyday Ladybug. And he knew from working beside the real Ladybug that she needed her friends, her team. 

“Lila can try but she won’t turn me against you” he starts offering his hand to her. “Just don’t get me tangled in your expose Lie-la schemes” he adds helping her to her feet. 

Marinette sniffled and wore a wobbly smile “I won’t”. Her watch suddenly beeps and Nathaniel puts his hands in his pockets “We’d better get to class now, don’t want to start the first day late.”

They walk into the classroom together and the first thing Marinette sees is Lila sitting in Marinette’s usual spot with Alya looking downright miserable. Sabrina is not sitting next to Chloe and Chloe is throwing fit over it. Nino looks about as miserable as Alya but he still smiles at the two.

“You can sit beside me if you’d like” Nathaniel offers already heading up to the back. Marinette nods and he goes up to his usual spot. Marionette looks to Alya for a reaction but the girl is hyper focused on a pencil in her hands. 

“Sabrina without you I won’t have any notes and I could fail, is that what you want? Do you seriously want to destroy the reputation of the mayor’s daughter?” Chloe cried stamping her foot. Sabrina who had taken the seat next to Ivan shrugged then continued reading her book. 

“Guess the princess has to do her own work now” Alix chirps resting her legs on the desk. 

Chloe’s face turns a fantastic shade of red, she’s about to blow when a familiar outfit walks in. With classic Chloe style she throws herself on him “oh Adrien you have to help me talk some sense into Sabrina, I’ll fail without her!” 

“That’s a bummer” the boy who was certainly not Adrien said. Chloe realised this and threw herself off.

“You’re not Adrian, who are you?” 

“I’m Wayhem, Wayhem Walter” Wayhem announced shyly, Chloe scoffs and heads back to her seat. 

Miss Bustier smiles at him “feel free to grab a free spot.” Wayhem nods and first looks to the free spot next to Chloe, but she glares harshly at him and covers the free spot with her hands. He then looks to the one next to Nino.

“I’d actually like to keep it free for Adrian” Nino says sheepishly. Wayhem nods as if it didn’t bother him and proceeds to the empty desk at the back.

“Alya please talk to me, you’re my best friend” Marinette pleads and Alya’s grip on the pencil tightens until the wood cracks.

Lila glares at her with mischievous eyes “leave her alone Marinette, Alya doesn’t want to be your friend anymore”.

The flame is lit “I’m not talking to you Lila, you can’t talk for Alya”.

“Last night Alya told me the truth about what a horrible friend you are, honestly Marinette just leave her alone” Lila makes a big show of hugging Alya who was clearly uncomfortable. 

“But I’m not a horrible friend” Marinette is near tears and her voice is rising in volume. Alya’s eyes water and Lila happily uses that to her advantage.

“LEAVE US ALONE!” Lila cries with crocodile tears falling from her eyes.

“That’s enough” Miss Bustier steps in finally. “Marinette, go sit in the back” she orders pointing to the back of the classroom.

“But”

“Now” her voice leaves no room for argument. Marinette pouts and moves to the back. Nathanial scoots over and Marinette puts her bag in the empty seat. She walks over to Wayhem and places a box wrapped in green paper in front of him.

“Sorry about all that, welcome to Collage Francoise DuPont” she says as cheerfully as she could manage. Wayhem looks at her with a combination of surprise and I will protect you with my life. He opens the box to find a cupcake with his name written in icing. A small tag attached welcomed him and reassured him the cake was peanuts free. Not only had she gone through the trouble to know his name but also took into consideration his allergy. 

Lila leans into Alya who had her face on the desk with her arms on top of her head. “I’m so glad Avvina convinced you what an awful person Marinette is, I thought I’d be all alone this year”.

“This has gone far enough” Alya hisses under her breath “I can’t stand hurting Marinette because you have some kind of petty rivalry with her”. 

“Marinette was really mean to me because she was jealous of how easily I befriended Adrien. And Avvina said you’d stick by my side this year, you don’t want Avvina to be disappointed do you?”

Alya bit her lip and swallowed a growl. Disappointment meant identity reveal, she was trapped. She hid her face in defeat. Lila patted her on the head like Avvina would and answered her name on the roll call.

Adrien blasts into the room right as his name is called twice. “Sorry I’m late, the drive was longer than anticipated” he says in between gasps on air. 

“You’re right on time Adrian” Miss Bustier chirps checking off the one time mark on her chart. She knew Adrian had enough stress on his plate and didn’t want to add being late to that. She’s about to start the lesson for the day when Lila acts up again. 

Lila boots Alya out of her seat “what’s that Alya? You want to sit with your boyfriend, no problem Adrian can sit with me”. Lila bats her eyes and pats the now empty seat beside her. Alya glares but not for long, she smiles at Nino for the first time that day and sat by him. She could do this; just play along a little longer.

“No way if Adrian is changing seats it’s by me” Chloe snarls grabbing Adrian’s arm and pulling him towards her desk. 

“But Adrian wants to sit with me” Lila insists grabbing Adrian’s other arm. Now the two were in a tug of war with poor Adrian as the rope. 

“He wants to sit with his childhood best friend!”

“He wants to sit with his current best friend!”

“THAT’S ENOUGH!” Miss Bustier grabs hold of both girls’ arms and they drop Adrien. Her expression softens “Adrian, please go sit in the back with Wayhem. You girls either go back to your seats quietly or you’ll both be staying after school for detention”.

Adrian nods thankfully and hurries his way to the back where Wayhem was. He looked totally star struck as Adrian sat by him and give him a gentle hello. Chloe opens her mouth to argue but one look from Miss Bustier is enough to make her decide otherwise. 

“But I was just-“ 

“Lila, I don’t want to hear it” Miss Bustier cuts off her pathetic whining, “go to your seat and stay there”. Lila grumbles but does as ordered; Caline rubs her temples with a sigh. It was only the first day and already she could spot several problems she would have to work on. As she started she noticed Nino holding Alya’s hand under the table and some of her mind is put at ease. At the very least she knew Nino could help with whatever had happened between Alya and Marinette. 

At the end of class Lila grabbed Alya and walked out of class with her. She made sure to look back at Marinette with a smirk just to make the raven head steam. Marinette paused at the door then bolted after them. Adrian came out with Wayhem at his heel “and would you believe my Ma got my birthday confused with Toby’s? That was hilarious”. He gives a hard laugh only to notice Adrian was looking towards Marinette. “Marinette seems super nice, I wonder what she did to break her friendship” Wayhem mutters hoping that would get a reaction. 

“No kidding” Adrian muttered watching Marinette turn the corner “I should see if I can help”. Without even a goodbye he runs after them leaving Wayhem by himself. Maybe he did want to help; he was the great, kind Adrian Agreste after all. But Wayhem couldn’t help but think he was just looking for an excuse to get away from him. Hurt flashes on Wayhem’s face but he quickly dashes it spotting Marc in the distance. At least there was someone at this school who tolerated him. 

Before he can even call Marc’s name Nathaniel had walked up to him and the two were chatting. Wayhem could only make out bits and pieces but he got the important bits. Nathaniel wanted to hang out with him and continue their comics. They were even going to go out for a coffee after school to discuss it. Really Wayhem should be excited that Marc managed to ask him out without his help. He didn’t need him after all. 

He didn’t need him.

A lump forms in Wayhem’s throat and he ducks towards the boys bathrooms. Marc didn’t even notice he had disappeared. Wayhem splashes water on his face and stares at his reflection in a mirror inside. He plays with his curly hobbit hair and throws some over his eye like how Nathaniel wore it. He frowns and shakes it back into its messy usual look. Something that wasn’t impressive was glossed over by others. Why should he even try? No one cared about Wayhem Walter, no one wanted him. 

Suddenly his hand is pinched by a mosquito; he yelps and slaps it away. The mosquito hums away happily while Wayhem stared at his blackening hand in horror. A second passes and he looks back at his reflection with his eyes completely black. The black rolls into his eyes and they look mostly normal when the door opens and Kim steps in. 

Kim pulled out a pink Barbie nail file and started fixing his thumbnail “stupid hangnail” he mutters. He looks over and jumps seeing Wayhem staring at him “oh crap, didn’t see you there”.

Wayhem puts on a fake smile “no worries, your secret is safe with me” he holds out his hand. Kim raises an eyebrow but takes his hand to shake. Wayhem smirks and tightens his grip to the point Kim’s fingers crack. To Kim’s horror Wayhem’s eyes changed into ones you’d see on a chameleon and his form shifted until he looked exactly like Kim. Although the chameleon pin he wore stayed the same.

Kim falls on his butt as Wayhem checked out his new reflection “let’s see, you like to eat blocks of cheese in your room, religiously watch American sitcoms and still cry over the ending of Marley and me. Not bad but not what she’s looking for” Wayhem uses Kim’s strength to grab Kim and shove him into one of the stalls. “Hope you don’t mind me borrowing your life for a moment” he slams the door and uses a chair to prevent Kim from escaping. 

“Remember, the child of moon likely changes their appearance when not transformed. Find them and transform into them and I’ll let you live the life of anyone you choose”. The voice in his head was motherly but had the ice that made him feel like a knife was at his throat. Wayhem had every right to be terrified, but instead he almost skipped down the hall looking for the next person to change into. A plan already forming is his head to how he could draw this child of moon out. He smiles at Max coming up to him believing him to be Kim and spots Lila and Alya down on the first floor. He might as well have a little fun while he was at it. 

“Kim, I’m glad I found you. Look at this” Max holds up an IPad with a blueprint on it. “I think I just came up with the best science project to date, I just need to perfect the physics”.

Chameleon pretends to read it thoughtfully and slaps Max’s back in a friendly matter. “I’m sure you can figure it out” his voice suddenly changes to Max’s. “After all two heads are better than one” Max nearly drops his IPad as a copy of him walks over the railing. “But this head has some things to do so you’ll just have to work with one for now…” the copy blinks awkwardly “which you had to begin with so technically I do nothing. Okay whatever see ya!”

The copy jumps over the railing and super hero lands on the bottom floor. Max manages to get over his shock to send an alert to the Lady Blog.

Alya happily grabs her phone thankful for the break from Lila’s constant need for attention. They were surrounded by a few mush brains being entertained by Lila’s wild stories.  
But Lila noticed Alya slipping away immediately and clung to her arm. “Where are you going bestie?”

Alya held up her phone “Akuma alert, I got to get stuff for my blog”. 

Lila naturally frowned at this “but what about me? You can’t just leave me alone when the akuma could hurt me”.

Alya slapped her forehead and growled, no Rena Rouge today. “Fine why don’t you join me then so you can get some footage for your blog too” she offered as friendly as she could manage.

“I guess the Paris Vulture could use an update” Lila says poking at her own phone to check it.

“I thought it was called the PVTC” 

“I changed the title” Lila says with a shrug “I have more stuff on Avvina then on Paon, plus it rolls off the tongue easier” she shoves her phone in Alya’s face. “Like the photo? I drew it myself” the picture was of Avvina in the clouds above the Paris night life with a hoop in each hand. 

“Drew it myself is Italian for payed someone to draw it in secret” Lila gasps as a pair of arms wrap around her and another Lila rests her head on her shoulder. “And wow, holy daddy problems batman. You have got like” the copy steps in front and mimics their head exploding “so many secrets”. The real Lila pales as the fake makes an ugly chuckle complete with snorts. “Think you can stop me before I spill them all?” the copy taunts with a huge grin.

“What do you call yourself akuma?” Alya asks in her reporter voice, her phone already up and recording.

“Oh I’m Chameleon” the copies eyes change into the chameleon ones for a second making both girls jump back. “Love to stay and chat but I’ve got a COM to find” with that Chameleon pushes Lila into Alya and runs off.

“Merda, I can’t let her escape” Lila runs off without looking back at Alya. No time to transform she follows the copy down the hall and into the locker room. “Show yourself you little…”

“Is this some kind of trick?” Marinette’s voice asks from behind a row of lockers. 

“No it’s true; I never had a crush on Adrien. I’ve never had a crush on a boy in fact. I just pretend to so no one will know I actually like-“

“STOP RIGHT THERE” Lila cries pointing a finger at the two. Marinette’s jaw drops at the horror of two Lila’s.

“What, it’s not like I’m telling lies, for once” Chameleon puts on fake innocence that Lila herself used all the time. Lila makes a sound like a cougar and pounces towards them. Chameleon dodges and grabs Lila’s arms, the playful expression changed to one much more dangerous. “And you made the only nice person in this school cry, I’m not going to stop until you get that tenfold!” Chameleon slams Lila into a locker and in a grand display of super strength bends the metal trapping Lila inside. 

Chameleon looks over at Marinette with a sweet smile. The large black mosquito bite on his hand burns and makes him flinch. “Lady says you’re definitely not the child of moon-OW” he shakes his hand in pain. He looks back at her with crazy wide eyes “I said too much, I must go” with that Chameleon bolts out of there.

“Child of moon” Marinette echo’s as Tikki flies out of her purse. Lila pounds away on the locker but it wouldn’t budge. Marionette gives it a test tug but it wasn’t going to be moving anytime soon “hold on Lila I’m going to get help”. 

Adrian scratches the back of his head looking around the courtyard. Marinette was faster than he thought, he had completely lost her. He does spot Nino sitting on the staircase with his head in his hands, maybe he had seen her. “Hey Nino…uh you alright” Nino looks up at him with the biggest pout he could make. 

“Oh I’m fine, I’m just a huge idiot” he huffs and sits back. “Lila just confessed that she lied about like everything she’s ever told me, I mean how did I seriously think she knew Spielberg?” he used his hat to hide his eyes. 

Adrian tilted his head “Lila told the truth?” that was something he didn’t think he would hear today. Nino just shrugged and pointed towards a group of people, Lila in the middle. Curious Adrian walks over and pushes though the crowd. 

“Yes it’s true; I tried to turn you all against Marinette by starting that rumour about her being a kleptomaniac” Chameleon says proudly putting a hand over his chest.

“But why, Marinette is the nicest girl in this school” Rose cries over the gasps of everyone. 

“I knew it was a rumour, Marinette isn’t that slick” Chloe says pretending to check her nails.

Chameleon waves his arms with a cheeky smile “now get ready for this, Lila Rossi is-“ 

“Lila, are you okay?” Adrian steps up and puts a hand on her shoulder. Maybe she was under pressure and she was suffering a mental break. Instead of an answer Chameleon transforms into a copy of Adrian. 

The crowd gasps and Chameleon slowly turns over to Adrian. “Man now I don’t know” he fakes whines than he laughs loudly “well the damage is done”. He moves to scratch his head and gasps at his bicep “whoa there really is no photo shop done to them”. 

Adrian’s eyes spot the chameleon pin on the copies shirt. The same outfit someone else wore “wait, Wayhem?” 

“In your flesh” Chameleon struck some finger guns, “see what I did there”. He moonwalks two steps and a yo-yo wraps around him. 

“Don’t you know loose lips sink ships” Ladybug calls and the crowd cheers. 

“Oh come on, no one ships Adrian and Lila” Chameleon leans over and touches Mylene’s head. The sudden height change allows him to slip out of the string and make a mad dash out of there.

“I agree, most certainly a NOTP” Rena Rouge jumps down and begins chase. Ladybug pretends to gag recalling her yo-yo and following after them. 

“Whatever you do don’t let him touch you, he gains access to all your secrets when does” Ladybug orders as Chameleon transforms into Sabrina than crashes into Alix transforming into her. Her little legs don’t help with getting away so he reaches blindly and touches Juleka. Ladybug gasps and swings over the students to build up speed. 

“You fool, the child is a boy” the voice snaps as he uses Juleka’s agility to slide under a table two students were carrying. 

“Well if you had told me that beforehand I would have stayed as the dream boat longer” Chameleon mutters and spots Luka up ahead. With a sneaky grin he charges towards him.

“Juleka, you wouldn’t have happened to have grabbed my bag this morning did you? I have some important…notes in it” Luka calls too caught up in his own nerves to take any suspicion to Chameleon’s smirk. 

“Sure did, don’t worry I didn’t look in it after the Crimson spell incident” 

Luka’s face turns bright red “you-you promised to never speak of that again”.

Chameleon laughs and leans on Luka’s shoulder with his arm, his form shifting into Luka’s. “I read it for the plot, honest” he says in Luka’s voice. Luka is just frozen in place as Chameleon runs a hand though his hair and checks out his hips. “Nice, you work out?” 

“There he is!” both Luka’s look over to see Queen Bee had joined the chase. Chameleon rolls his eyes and runs off. Luka spots the real Juleka making her way to the bathroom with his bag and chases after her. 

Chameleon busts out the front door and makes it down the front steps in one jump. A shield suddenly slams into him with enough force he goes flying.

“That was the copy right?” Carapace calls running up to where the other hero’s had gathered around Chameleon. 

Ladybug holds up her yo-yo and scans Chameleon as he scoots across the street and bumps into the sidewalk. She can’t help but smirk at the eye’s budged out fearful look on his face. “The Luka I know is much cooler then this copycat” she says spotting him hiding the bite hand behind his back. Chameleon flinches as the hero’s corner him. 

“Actually he’s got to be the biggest dork I’ve ever seen, like he has a huge coin collection. Plays pirates with action figures and literally thinks he can hear heart songs” Chameleon blabs reaching behind him into a sewer grate. Ladybug pauses with a dumb look, “like total dweeb” Chameleon suddenly disappears in front of their eyes. “Ha, ha later hero’s” a squeaky voice comes from below. A tiny cockroach slips into the storm drain “bug out”. 

Back in the locker room Ladybug allows Queen Bee to begin opening the locker while she checked her yo-yo. “Sorry I didn’t show, was catching up with an old friend” Ladybug reads the text from Paon out loud. “Looks like someone just volunteered for sewer duty” she jokes as Queen Bee gives a loud grunt.

“Why not make Chat go after the akuma, he’s the one who hasn’t shown up in weeks” Bee clenches her teeth and flaps her wings. The wings glow and spread to her arms, with a mighty yell Bee forces the metal open half an inch. The glow dies and Bee collapses “I…I can’t do it” Ladybug puts a hand on her shoulder. 

Ladybug looks to the ground “we’re just having an off day, here” she summons her lucky charm without any emotion and catches a jaw of life. “I still haven’t heard from him, I hope he’s okay” her voice trails into the hallway where Adrian leaned against the wall listening in. Plagg peeks out from his jacket but neither says a word. The charm works and Lila falls out onto the floor. 

“Did you stop him, did you stop Chameleon” Lila for once in her life looks to Ladybug hopefully.

“We’re working on it” Ladybug helps Lila to her feet. “You uh, might want to consider going home early” Ladybug’s eyes are filled with pity. 

“And why is that?” Lila yanks her hand free and glares at her. 

“Honey you’ve been exposed” Queen Bee chimes in flashing a thumb down. Lila’s eyes widen in shock, the moment she steps out of the locker room all eyes are on her. No one said anything because Ladybug was behind her but the stares said enough. Lila tugs at her hair and bolts out of the school. She could make up an excuse to her mom later, right now she had to get away from the stares and Ladybug’s satisfied smirk. 

Lila throws open her bedroom door and collapses on the bed. Tutti flies out from her discarded bag and floats in front of her head buried in a pillow “at least your identity is safe” he says with a strained smile.

“He was saving that for last I bet” Lila hugs her pillow to her chest. “What does it matter anyway, Chameleon has ruined my life!” She throws her blanket over her body and curls into a ball. 

Tutti sighed and ran a nub over his beak, he lands on her headrest and an evil smirk blooms on his face. “Well I guess we’ll just wait here and let the grand savior Ladybug, find Chameleon” Lila looks up with a deadly glare. “Maybe I was wrong; Ladybug really is the most perfect, most efficient hero Paris has to offer. She’s able to defeat anything that gets in her way” he continues putting his nubs on the side of his face like a dopey fanboy. 

Lila jumps up and points a finger “have you been paying attention? Ladybug let Chameleon tell almost all my secrets while I was trapped and even before that she humiliated me in front of Adrian!”

Tutti blows a raspberry “that didn’t happen, that’s just another lie you made up”. 

“YES IT DID!” Lila insists with her face turning a nice shade of red. “Ladybug loves to make herself out to be this perfect savior but she’s selfish and vein and full of herself! She won’t stop Chameleon unless she can make herself look as perfect and untouchable as possible!”

“Sounds familiar” Tutti mutters with a knowing smirk. Lila growls and throws her blanket at him. 

“I am nothing like Ladybug, in fact I’m going to find and beat Chameleon before she even has a chance”. They transform and Avvina launches out her window. “Okay Chameleon, I’m going to find you and make you roadkill” she promises taking off into the skies. 

Later after school Paon is lounging in a large tree reading the texts in his fan. “So Chameleon is after me, typical” he slaps the fan closed and props his head up with his arm. “So logically he will find his way to me so there’s no point going after him in the sewers” he smirks spotting Marc walking around the park. “Which means I get to hang out with an old friend” he drops the costume and waits for Marc to walk closer to the tree. 

“You do realise this is a date right?” Duusu whispers into his ear.

“What no, this is just two old friends meeting up for a coffee” Nath waves her off and she rolls her eyes. 

“Look how nervous he looks, look at how you’re about to jump out of this tree to greet him. I mean how extra can you get?'

“I’m a peacock, we’re supposed to be extra” Nathaniel shrugs and moves a branch to get a better look at Marc. “Besides, I only like Marc as my friend” he adds more to himself than to her. 

“Just make sure he knows that” Duusu says jumping into his jacket pocket “don’t lead him on peachick”. Nathaniel’s lips form a thin line and he jumps from the tree.

“Look at them, they disgust me” Chameleon spits peeking out from a storm drain. He was back in his Wayhem form. Nathaniel and Marc walked by him unaware of the eyes on them. Nathaniel said something that made Marc laugh and they began walking to the smoothie shop. Chameleon hisses and focuses on Nath “I want his life”.

“Then it shall be yours, but you must find me the child of moon first” his mosquito bite purred and he looks at it funny. 

“How come you don’t want Ladybug and Chat Noir’s miraculous? Wasn’t that the thing the bad guys were after?”

“They are not useful to me without a fool crazy enough to wish me into your reality. And the fool must be of his own mind, not controlled by my power. So I need the child of moon” the voice left no room to question. Chameleon nodded and touched a dead fly on the ground, he turned into one and flew towards the boys. 

“So do you still draw the mighty illustrator?” Marc asks as Nathaniel opens the door to the coffee shop. The door swings when it closes and smacks Chameleon into a puddle. Mr. Ramier whistles walking over it, Chameleon suddenly transforms into him and he trips into a bush.

“Actually I haven’t really; I’ve been drawing more of the real hero’s as of late”. Nathaniel held out his drawing pad he had in his bag. He opens it to a random page which was a half-finished drawing of Paon and Chat. Chat lifted Paon with one arm while Paon was pretending to be a dead bird with a present bow and tag on his head for Ladybug. 

“Paon is really cool” Marc admits as Nath closes the book rather quickly. “He’s the star of my latest fic, the journal of Paon”. They sit down at a table near the window where Chameleon spies them and glares in a very unsubtle way. 

“Ooh let me see” Marc shyly let him hold the journal. Like with the diary of Ladybug it had the title on the front in purple cursive. The cover was blue with a peacock feather being used as a bookmark. Marc stood up in order to order their drinks while Nath opened the book. Marc’s face grows warm in the cool shop as Nath smiles to himself on the first chapter. It started off when Marc had first met Paon and the two had finished the akuma comic together. As Nathaniel remembered, the scenes were cute and funny with a tinge of romantic cheesiness he just loved. Marc came back with two drinks with a bunch of whipped cream on top and Nathaniel got to one particular line that made him freeze. “I tossed and turned remembering the curl of his lips as he wrote in that comic. I decided that night that I need to know that raven haired beauty more”. 

Marc’s face went bright red and he snatched the book away but it’s too late. “You have a crush on Paon Bleu” Nathanial states slowly like he tasted the words. 

Marc sighed and held the book to his chest, he forgot about that last page. “Yeah I guess I have a thing for long haired red heads” he chuckled and ran a hand though his hair. Nathaniel felt his face redden and hid it by licking at the whipped cream in his cup. Crap, this really was a date. He was going to have to let him down gently. He looked back at Marc who had gained a whipped cream mustache from his drink. Not good, this was starting to feel like a coffee shop AU. He had to do something and fast.

“Marc I’m sorry but I-“

He’s saved by Chameleon walking inside and crashing into a large man. He shifts into him while apologising, this causes the waitress carrying a load of empty mugs to drop them. Chameleon apologises again and accidently smacks his hand into another person just trying to enjoy their coffee. Chameleon stumbles over to the two boys shifting into at least two other people in the chaos he started. 

“Chameleon” Nathaniel’s super hero instincts kick in and he throws his drink in Chameleon’s face. Chameleon cries out in pain and charges at them. Nath uses his chair to smack Chameleon away and into a separate table. Nathaniel whips the belt off a random dude and snags it around Chameleon’s hands. With a good tug the belt traps his hands together. 

“Nice moves back there” Marc compliments as they exit the coffee shop. They turn a corner and stop to catch their breath. More for Marc’s benefit then Nathanial who isn’t even winded. 

“Thanks, guess all that time in America was a nice break from akuma’s” Nath jokes looking away for a good excuse to leave and alert Ladybug. 

“So soft” 

Nathaniel looks back to see two Marc’s standing there. One was touching his hair with a look of sheer bliss on his face. “Seriously it’s like petting a kitten” Chameleon adds giving his hair a few more pats.

“I thought you were tied up” the real Marc cries covering his hair with his hoodie self-consciously.

“That guy was really sweaty” Chameleon says turning to Nath and putting on a game face “now it’s your turn red”.

“Not if I have anything to say about it” a hoop suddenly flies from the heavens and pins Chameleon to a tree. Avvina lands in front of Nathanial with a most menacing glare “you are going to pay for ruining my life”. 

“Whoa okay lady you have to clarify I have shifted into a lot of people today” Chameleon cries trying to get away; he even starts biting at his arm. Avvina steps up and smacks him across the face with another hoop. His Marc form disappears leaving Wayhem in his place. 

Avvina grabs Chameleon by the throat “maybe I’ll collar you, how would you like that?” she holds up a ring in her free hand.

“No don’t hurt him” Marc cries moving to run towards them. Nathaniel grabs him before he got too close. 

“Stay out of this wimp” Avvina growls spinning the hoop on her finger “a little mouse like you would be torn apart by my talons” she adds to make herself sound tough.  
Chameleon’s fear turns into hatred and he starts wiggling the arm trapped to the tree.

A flaming sword flies past her arm and takes the hoop with it. Avvina cries out and holds a burned hand as the Knights of Sin land in front of them. Raion pulls her sword out from the ground and stomps on the ring shattering it to pieces. “Stand down vulture; this is your only warning” Raion growls pointing the sword at Avvina.

Nathaniel should be sneaking away to calm the situation. But he doesn’t want to miss a second of this encounter. Raion doesn’t take her eyes off Avvina and points to Lune “go charge ups your cosmic arrow; we will handle this false knight”.

Avvina tightens her grip on Chameleon’s neck “no way, this is my battle, go find some ink demons to squish”. 

“My kwami and I have come to the decision that you don’t deserve a miraculous. Step away from the akuma and hand it over” Raion’s eyes flash as she walks towards Avvina.

“Wayhem, you’re like the most cheerful guy I know. What happened to get you akumantized?” Marc frees himself from Nathaniel to get as close to Chameleon as he dared.  
Chameleon yanks his hand free and his eyes shift into the reptile ones “no one cares about Wayhem, its CHAMELEON NOW!” he grabs Avvina’s hair and shifts into her. Avvina freezes just long enough for Chameleon to push her of him. He uses Avvina’s wings to take off but doesn’t get far because of Licorne’s lasso. 

Nathaniel finally decides to get Marc out of there as a brawl breaks out between Avvina and Raion. Nath pushes Marc into the coffee shop “okay you stay in here I’ll” Raion’s stray fire blasts between them. Nathaniel jumps out of the way and Marc is trapped inside. “I’ll find another hiding spot” Nath yells turning and running the other direction. 

“HA” Avvina taunts still bent at a funny angle like she was preforming demonic yoga. Raion gets over her shock and punches Avvina square in the nose. 

“Licorne, I need you” Raion backflips over to her and holds out her hand. Licorne nods and spins her horn in her hand.

“Unicorn-“

“Ooo nice sword” Chameleon reaches out and touches Raion’s arm. He shifts into her and jumps away “aw so cool, or should I say hot”. Chameleon pulls out an identical sword and swings it around like a child.  
Raion’s eye twitches as Chameleon throws the sword in the air, gets startled by his tail and the sword nearly cuts his head off. He bounces like a surprised cat and falls on the ground. Raion forgets about her miraculous timer and charges him. Amazingly Chameleon blocks the first strike and the two engage in a sword fight. “Holy crow I’m not dead” Chameleon shouts with glee as Raion flips over him and kicks him in the butt.

“Should we step in?” Licorne asks looking at Gorm.

“I kinda want to see who will win” Gorm admits watching Raion swipe at the copy’s feet. Chameleon makes a bunch of silly noises and looks like he’s trying to tap dance. 

“The longer he’s Raion the more he’ll know about her” Avvina says casually standing beside Licorne. “My money’s on the fake” she adds as Chameleon sticks his tongue out and dodges a strike by doing limbo.

“I can’t find any” Lune gasps and flies down next to Gorm and Licorne. “There’s no spark of positive energy anywhere” she blinks owlishly at the fight between Raion and Chameleon “what happened?”

“Need a spark huh” Avvina scratches her chin and pulls out a hoop “all mine!” She chucks the hoop up and it transforms into a yellow balloon. “Oh come on give me a Taser, Thor’s hammer even a toaster would be more useful than this!” Avvina shouts to the sky but still grabs the balloon before it could fly off.  
Her eyes scan the area, Raion and Chameleon still locked in battle. Licorne stared at her confused and Lune scratched at her head. Some of her hair stands up frizzy and the light bulb goes off. “Okay, here’s what we’re going to do” Avvina gathers the other knights around her. 

Chameleon slides under Raion and grabs her tail scarf to trip her up. Raion on her back holds her sword sideways to block Chameleon’s next attack. Embers fly off the swords and Chameleon puts his face close to hers. Raion tenses ready for him to taunt her about her hidden insecurities and fears.

His face lights up with a goofy grin “aw you brought a kitten to school in third grade? That’s adorable”. Raion was not prepared for that. 

“Hey copycat” a new voice calls from above. Chameleon looks up to see Paon standing on top of the coffee shop. The edges of his suit were wet from the water he collected to put out the flames surrounding the area. Chameleon’s jaw drops as Paon’s back feathers pop up creating a gorgeous display of colour.

Raion uses the distraction to kick Chameleon off of her and into a tree with enough force that he changes back into Wayhem again. His bite burns “THAT’S HIM; TOUCH HIM SO I MAY KNOW WHO HE IS!” Her voice is so loud and scratchy Chameleon grabs at his head in pain.

“Here we go” Avvina rubs the balloon against Lune’s head. Lune has an uneasy expression as Gorm starts playing a simple tune. Water comes out of the stings and floats around her head. Her fingers are slightly shaking as she takes her violin and starts playing it. 

Gorm nods to Lune and throws the charged water towards her “Unicorn wish” Licorne stabs the water and increases the positive energy charge inside them. The energy can be seen for a flash than sucks into Lune’s violin. The bow lights up indicating it was ready to fire.

Chameleon notices the light and his eyes widen “uh oh”. He gets to his feet and super jumps towards Paon. Paon makes a funny squawk and darts away from his hands. 

“I can’t get a good shot” Lune cries trying to position her arrow to fire at Chameleon’s hand. It was easier said than done especially with Paon dancing all over the place trying not to get tagged. 

“I got it” Gorm runs over and slides on his knees “ocean’s wrath!” He plays a loud cord sending a huge wave toward both Paon and Chameleon. It’s too fast for even Paon to react in time before they’re submerged. Gorm then plays a high cord and the water freezes into a solid block. “Okay, now for the hard part” he gently plays and the ice surrounding Paon melts and releases him to the ground. Paon gasps for air and gives Gorm one heck of a stink eye. Gorm smiles nervously and prepares to release part of Chameleon but Raion beats him to it. She slashes with her claws and yanks out his mosquito bite hand. Lune grins and takes aim.

“Cosmic Arrow”

The arrow hits the bite and explodes into a huge static ball. The poison disappears and the ice shatters. When the light dies down Wayhem is sitting on the ground with one hand on his head. 

“Paon I got your message where’s Chameleon?” Ladybug swings in then stops looking everyone over. Everyone’s hair was ultra-frizzy making them look like Albert Einstein wannabe’s. Wayhem and Paon were spared but looked like a couple of drowned rats. 

“I’m good” Wayhem announces face planting on the ground. 

“I did it” Lune cheers jumping up and down. Her face falls once she makes eye contact with Ladybug “and now you can’t do your cure oh no I messed up” she hides her face in shame. 

“No, no you did great” Licorne insists throwing her into a hug.

“Well it’s not like my all mine has a Miraculous Vulture effect” Avvina throws her balloon into the sky. It harmlessly floats into the air and Avvina glares at it like it was the cause of all her problems today.

“Miraculous Ladybug” Ladybug calls summoning her bugs to repair the damage Chameleon had caused. This wasn’t much other than the locker at school and the trashed coffee shop. Avvina crosses her arms and pouts as the Ladybug’s fix her hair. 

“Now then” Raion steps over to Avvina and her miraculous gives its final warning. Avvina hears her earrings beep and takes off with the three minutes she had left. Raion sighs and turns to Ladybug “the knights would like to speak with you when we have more time” she announces than pounces off. The other knights give quick goodbyes as well and head off to lose the costumes somewhere safe. 

Marc runs over to Wayhem and helps him to his feet “Wayhem I care about you a lot, I’m sorry you felt otherwise”. Wayhem tears up slightly and throws him into a hug. 

“Hey Marc” Nathaniel runs over and Wayhem quickly breaks away from the hug. “Word of advice, never hide in the bathroom of a gas station” Nath jokes earning a chuckle out of the both of them. 

“Well I’ll leave you guys to your date, I should go feed my ant farms” Wayhem excuses himself so quickly he misses the cloud of awkwardness he left in his wake. 

Nath rubs his neck and let out a quick breath “Marc you know what you were saying about Paon, about liking red heads…”

“I know it was stupid” Marc admits hiding his hands in his pockets. “It’s okay it’s just, I mean…” he trails off for a second biting his lip “can we still make comics together?” 

“Yeah of course” Nath says a little too quickly “although I’m a little unsure about the journal of Paon”.

“Yeah I get that…” Marc shoved said book deeper into his bag. “Maybe we can brain storm something more action packed tomorrow in the art room. AS friends of course” he adds quickly.

“I’d like that” Nath manages a half smile and forces his eyes to meet Marc’s. “Look Marc, I’m sorry I-“

“I said it’s okay” Marc cuts him off “I mean it hurts but I’ll get over it”. He tucks some hair behind his ear “I mean so far this is going much better than what I first imagined, I first thought you’d tear the journal up like a jerk”.

“I thought we agreed to pretend that never happened” Nath complains as Marc walks by him with a playful smirk on his face. 

Later in a more beat up part of town a colony of ants worked together to pull out a green lump out of their home. “Oh come on guys can’t I stay a little longer?” the blob whines as they place him down on the road and skitter away. He sighs and lazily covers his eyes from the blinding sun. “What am I supposed to do now?” his stomach made a loud growling sound. “And what am I supposed to eat?” he closes his eyes and mopes. He isn’t sure how long he stayed there, could have been minutes hours or even days. But it was probably only a few seconds.

A shadow falls over the sun and the blob looks up at a boy with wild brown hair “poor thing you look exhausted”. Wayhem bends over and picks the kwami up “little bald hamster forced to lie out in the hot sun”.

“Not hamster, Kwami” the lump states lazily looking at the boy who had picked him off the hard ground. Wayhem yelps and nearly drops him. The kwami makes a high pitched whining sound at the fleshy hands disappearing for a moment. “My name is Bobby, the kwami of sloth” he announces with a yawn.

“You don’t look like a sloth” Wayhem blurts sitting cross legged on the ground.

“The power of laziness came about long before humans named those slow creatures” Bobby muttered crossing his nubs. “So you want super powers kid?”

“What?”

“Take me home and feed me” Bobby cries throwing his nubs out “and I’ll tell you all about it”. Wayhem blinks but shrugs and carries the kwami back to his big but beat up home. 

The next day Lila has changed her outfit to include a black hoodie. She didn’t speak with anyone as she made her way to the classroom. She pretended the eyes on her back were of jealousy that she had so many friends and was so beautiful in every way. 

She bumped her head against her locker with a sigh. Not even telling herself what she wanted to hear was going to be enough for today, for the rest of the year. She grabs a book from the locker and slams it shut. She jumps in surprise when Sabrina suddenly appears beside her. 

“Hey Lila I just wanted to say I’m sorry. It was really unfair what happened to you” Sabrina starts shyly. 

“Why are you apologising? I lied to you too” Lila didn’t mean to snap but she did. Sabrina winced but stood her ground.

“Even so they were your secrets to tell. No one should have their identity revealed without their consent…unless they’re like a kidnapper or…” Sabrina keeps blabbing but Lila is looking past her. Alya was playing on her phone while muttering something. Lila’s eyes looked to the floor and she bit her lip. “But anyway since the entire school hates-I mean really dislikes you I wanted you to know I can be your friend” Sabrina finished doing a cute little bow of her head. 

Lila was quiet for a long time with the wheels in her head spinning away. She finally comes back to reality and puts on a strained smile “uh thanks Sabrina I uh…would you excuse me a moment?” Sabrina nods and steps aside for Lila. Lila takes a deep breath and approaches Alya, the look Alya gave her when she noticed her reminded Lila of a pissed off lioness. 

“What do you want Lie-la” Alya adopted the name Lila had been trying to ignore all morning. 

“I need to talk to you, in private” Lila doesn’t have to force crocodile tears this time. The real ones formed all their own blurring her vision. Alya frowns but allows Lila to lead her to the girl’s bathroom. After Lila had checked that no one else was in there she took another deep breath.

“So what is it?” Alya put her hands in her back pockets. Trixx had his ears stretched as far as he dared to hear.

“Avvina never actually talked to me” Lila starts looking at her hands tugging at her shirt. 

“I KNEW IT” Alya snapped making Lila jump “you made me hurt my best friend for nothing, I’m leaving” Alya stormed past her. 

“WAIT” Lila grabbed her arm “she never talked to me because I’m Avvina” that stopped Alya in her tracks. Lila wiped her eyes and opened her bag “come on out Tutti”. 

Tutti flies out with a satisfied smirk on his beak “nice to meet you fox girl, I apologise for my chicklets attitude towards you”. 

Alya doesn’t say anything so Lila continues “so now you know…we’re even. I can’t tell anyone your identity because you’ll tell mine and then I’ll lose Tutti forever” she rambles to fill the silence.

“You-you’re Avvina” Alya says slowly at last. Lila nods and the resemblance becomes uncanny to Alya. The miraculous charm was quite a trip once you got past it. 

“What do you mean you’ll lose him forever?” Trixx now feeling safe enough to emerge blurts. 

“That is the contract, our wielders must keep us safe above all else. If her identity is exposed I must take my miraculous and find a new wielder” Tutti explains keeping his eyes on Trixx. “I find this exchange to be fair and thus I’ll be staying with her” he adds floating down and resting on Lila’s shoulder.

“You can do that?” Trixx mutters in disbelief “you can leave”. 

“Yes, it would be ridiculous to stay with a wielder that puts us in danger” Tutti says as if it was obvious.

There’s a moment of silence that’s interrupted by Alya’s phone dinging. Alya clicks on it and Nino’s voice plays over the quiet “hey Alya did you hear the big news yet? The Knights of sin have announced that Avvina is a false knight and they’re after her miraculous. I know it’s not really Lady blog news but it’s still pretty cool”.

“A false knight” Alya echo’s with wide eyes. Something about those words were familiar, back when she called herself Volpina because that’s what everyone called her. Fireworks go off in her eyes and she pulls Lila into a bone crushing hug. “Finding out our identities must be destiny; I’m going to be your mentor!”

“Wait what?” Lila gasps with whatever air she had left.

Later in the classroom Marinette runs in moments before class was about to begin. To her surprise some students have switched seats again. Wayhem now sporting a black ring on his left hand is next to Ivan engaged in conversation about their pets. Chloe now sits next to a giant sized bag with who knows what was in it. Sabrina is sitting next to Lila in the back where Sabrina is talking and Lila is listening quietly. And Alya is sitting by herself staring intently at her.

Marinette steps over to her and Alya rose to greet her “Alya what’s going” Alya grabbed her in a hug before she could finish. 

“I’m sorry I hurt you” Alya squeezed tighter and Marinette returned it. “You’re my best friend and I need you to come to my birthday party” both girls start to tear up.

“Of course I’ll come, but I need a full explanation why you ever spoke with Lila” Marinette half jokes as they part. Alya nods and the entire class bursts into applause except Chloe who just turns away. 

Alya has a goofy smirk as Miss Bustier has them sit down to begin class. She leans over to Marinette “Lila just needed a push in the right direction; I had to go undercover to find out how to do it”. 

After class Miss Bustier put her hand on Lila’s shoulder making her freeze “Lila may I speak with you a moment”.

“Sure, what is it?” Lila turns around and by habit puts on her fake smile. 

“It was nice to see you really smile today, you and Sabrina seem to have instantly clicked” Miss Bustier says with a soft smile. Lila had prepared herself for a scolding, not this, what was she supposed to say to that?

“Uh, yes she’s really sweet” she goes with after a second.

“I hope to continue to see that smile this year, I know how tough it can be to be a teenager and it’s wonderful to find someone you can truly be yourself with”. Miss Bustier knew such words were cliché but also that they were so very true. “I look forward to getting to know the real you this year” she finishes with a smile.

Lila takes a step back and pushes some of her hair behind her ear “yeah…me too”. 

Meanwhile in the super jail a woman in her late forties was playing with her sloppy peas when Gabriel sat with his own lunch opposite her. She adjusts her large glasses and glares at him “what do you want with Doctor Sparks?” She jabs her spoon his direction and gets some pea gunk on his prison uniform. 

“I had something happen with my finger, I was hoping you could take a look at it” Gabriel moves his closed hand over the table. Doctor Sparks raises a brow and gently takes his hand. She looks at his fingers as something is placed in her hand.

She slaps his hand away “How many times must I tell you rich boy that I am a Doctor of mechanics? I once took over South America with my robotic army” she pauses and puts her hands together and dares a peek at the ear piece. “And what you have is a chipped nail, you should have two to even it out” she adds leaning forward.

“I imagine I will soon enough, perhaps during the next storm” Gabriel matches her sneaky smirk. 

“You should bring rubber boots so your feet stay warm”.

“I will” Gabriel looks around the cafeteria for a moment “in fact I will bring the whole coat and umbrella to keep warm”. Doctor Sparks snorts with glee and goes back to her ugly lunch. Gabriel sighs contently and picks up a miserable piece of chicken with his fork.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know why but I just can't ship Marc X Nathaniel as much as some of the fandom. I understand the appeal but I doubt I'll ever write my own fic with it as the main ship.


	15. Justice Assembly

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A parody of the Justice League attacks the school, the knight of sloth makes his first appearance, Marinette finds out some things about Child of moon people and Paon finds out he has a great ass.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My life and my computer are very similar, both are being held together by duct tape and hope to make it to my next birthday.

Chapter 15 Justice Assembly  
The night before Chameleon  
The bedroom of Mr. Damocles is almost exactly how you would expect. Owl painting on the walls and a plain brown colour scheme to everything but the white carpet. There are a few Knight Owl comics next to his nightstand and an action figure next to a glass of water. In his knight owl pajamas the principal paces back and forth muttering to himself. He’s broken out of his thoughts by a white cat meowing loudly and rubbing his body against his legs.

“Oh I know I’m being silly Mr. Muffins, I just can’t help but worry for tomorrow. Another school year filled with akuma attacks” he falls on the bed and something ball shaped jabs him. He pulls out a knight owl licenced feather bomb toy and sighs. “If I had Knight Owl’s strength, intelligence, and wealth maybe I could do something about all this. But instead all I have is this” he gestures to his gut sticking out of his shirt. 

Mr. Muffins suddenly hisses and runs out of the room. Mr. Damocles looks over and spots a giant mosquito flying towards him. He yelps and chucks the feather bomb toy at it. He falls off the bed and hears the toy go off. Plastic feathers shoot around the room with one impaling the mosquito and staining the floor with black demon blood. Mr. Damocles cautiously peeked over his bed “am I okay?” he asks no one in particular.

“Hello man of owls, I am the Mosquito” a deep woman’s voice speaks from both everywhere and nowhere. Mr. Damocles freezes in fear “your desire to protect your students reached my heart, not long ago I too did everything in my power to protect my child”. With shaking hands Mr. Damocles steps over and finds the voice was coming out of his Knight Owl action figure. The feather bomb had knocked it to the ground into the pool of demons blood. “This blood will give you the powers of your hero, to defend your children from the creatures of hell”.

Mr. Damocles shakes his head “absolutely not, I will not be tempted again to hurt people just so I can be the Knight owl”.

“Then don’t” the Mosquito replied coolly “but if you change your mind this power has a shelf life of about three days”. The action figure then goes quiet, the air it left as thick as the blood.

The day Chameleon attacked Mr. Damocles stares at his door with a fixed expression. He could hear the screams of his students as they ran to get away from the shape shifter. He had to get out there, take charge, get rid of the evil and save his students…but how?

“You know what you have to do” Mosquito's voice makes him jump. Sitting on his desk is the same action figure he left at home. In one clawed hand it holds one of the feather bomb feathers, its tip sharp and dipped in demons blood. 

Mr. Damocles steps forward and picks up the feather. Still he hesitates so Mosquito pries further “the miraculous hero’s and the knights of sin are but children. Children you swore to teach and protect”

His eyes widened “they really are just children”.

Suddenly there’s a painful pinch on his arm. He looks down to see he had jabbed the feather into his arm. His veins became a visible black as the blood made its way to his head. “Go Dark owl, protect your students and in return I ask you find the child of moon”. 

Dark Owl has some improvements from the last time, he’s almost twice his usual size and his armour looks capable of letting him fight gods with ease. Dark owl moves past his desk and plucks another dark stained feather from his wrist. He jabs it into his computer and it transforms back into his helpful if not slightly terrifying assistant Albert with the human face. “Albert, upgrade the schools security systems” he orders spreading his fake wings and taking flight “hoo-hoo!”

Meanwhile Kagami slips into an ally way with a large bag on her back. She’s wearing her fencing uniform where Purrde pops out from the collar “maybe we should do this later, fencing starts in five minutes”.

“Plenty of time” Kagami states setting the bag down and unzipping it. Purrde watches on Kagami’s shoulder as she pulls out a bag of cat food. The ally is soon filled with meows of alley cats eager for lunch. Kagami sits on the ground as they crawl over her eager to get the first bowl of food. “Be patient” Kagami lets a rare smile light up her face as she hands out the kitty chow.

Purrde sniffs then pops one kibble into her mouth, her eyes nearly pop out of her head and she spits it out. “Are you trying to poison these strays?” she gasps wiping the taste off her tongue.

“I don’t think it’s meant for lions” Kagami jokes picking up a smaller cat and stroking its head. The cat purrs but wiggles out of her grip to get to the food.

The moment is shattered by a feather bomb falling in front of her. Kagami only has a second to bring up her bag to defend against the sharp feathers that flung in every direction. The cats scream and scatter away thankfully unharmed. 

“What was that?” Purrde is thankfully spared from the attacker by hiding in Kagami’s shirt. Kagami plucks one of the brown feathers off her bag. Purrde sniffs and coughs “I smell a strong demon presence off this”.

“I know of only one person with brown feathers” Kagami says crushing the feather to dust “Avvina must be using demons blood again”

“This is madness” Purrde cries grabbing Kagami’s hair. “Tutti must be fooled into thinking she’s a good person but she’s actually doing crimes like this”.

“We’ll track her down” Kagami promises running out of the ally forgetting her backpack. Since there was no people around Purrde didn’t bother to hide and flew beside her.

“You’ll do more than that” Purrde transforms into her large glowing lioness form. “She has violated the kwami agreement, you must remove her miraculous for Tutti’s sake”.

“Got it, Purrde Let’s hunt”

Purrde and Kagami are engulfed in golden sun, when it dies down Raion super jumps up to the rooftops.

Dark owl hides in the shadows as the miraculous cure fixes Paris once more. He pats his belt and frowns discovering his feather bomb had fallen off. He sighs looking over the multiple heroes’ running off to find somewhere to change back. He taps his earpiece “I will need a team of my own if I am to take down the children hero’s. Albert, organise a meeting for tomorrow”.

“But sir” Albert’s robotic voice answered “the season finale of Betty’s cook off is tomorrow”.

“Oh I can’t miss that uh schedule for the next day then. Early morning” Dark owl orders and with a click of a button by his wrist the costume folds into a wrist watch.

 

Ladybug huffs for breath on her knees, her costume vaporises and she’s left in her PJ’s. Tikki in her Joan of Arc form kneels beside her and offers a sweet smile. The training grounds this time were the inside of a volcano, the harsh shadows making Shu look even more like a dragon. Shu approaches her with a smirk on her face. “Not bad little bug, with a little more practice you’ll have this trick down in the next oh say five or six years”.

“I’m trying Shu, it’s just that-“

“That’s Master Shu to you” Shu interrupts, Tikki looks up at her with a glare. Shu ignores this in favour of offering Marinette a hand to her feet. “You’re used to drawing magic from your miraculous, and to master this trick you need to draw some from your soul as well. Magic does not come easy to us humans, usually the one granted the power of creation has at least a basic grasp of magical properties. Had Fu had even the slightest idea of what it meant to be a guardian he would have picked better” Marinette winces like the words were a slap to the face. 

“Do not speak of Master Fu that way” Tikki snaps resting a hand on her swords handle. “He chose wisely and Marinette passed even your test” she adds meeting Shu’s amused black eyes. 

“Of course, that’s why I’m teaching her and he’s off who knows where with the miracle box” Shu steps aside to avoid steam blasting from the ground. “What did I say about the rage little bug?” Marinette takes a deep breath and the steam disappears. “You must be careful, you have as much control over the soul realm as I do” Shu smirks and puts her whip back on her belt “now it’s time I should be letting you go-“

“Wait, Master Shu” Marinette holds out her hand “I wanted to ask you something”. 

“Ask away little bug” Shu hides her hands in her sleeves. 

“At school we were attacked by Chameleon, and he said he was after a child of moon. What is that…” no sooner had the words left her lips did Marinette regret them. The volcano groaned and smoke filled the area. Had it not been a dream the toxic would have surely killed her.

“Let us hope his mission was fruitless, demon drainers are beings that should remain extinct” Shu hisses as the smoke gathers in front of her. The smoke shifts to resemble two human like creatures with glowing red eyes. Marinette gulps when they open their mouths and show off sharp fangs. “They were a group of people that regularly drank demon blood” Shu explained as the smoke creatures hissed. 

“They drank that stuff?” Marinette gags as the smell of demons blood enters her nose. 

“Yes, it was quite inhuman” Shu drones as the creatures went after another smoke creature designed to look like one of the goo demons. They bite into it like wild animals and tear it apart. “Because of their diet they had other worldly powers, ones that threatened the guardians”. Marinette gasped as the ladybug magic pattern appeared on her skin. “They could sense a miraculous user, even when not transformed.” The shadows snarled and charged towards Marinette. By reflex she hides her face and the shadows blew though her. The hiss they made sent shivers up her spine. Shu let out a laugh at her fear while Tikki bit her lip. The smoke swirled together and turned into eight red eyed monsters. 

“And that was why we had to do something” Tikki’s says as ghostly beings walk past them. Marinette recognised one as the Chinese Ladybug of the past. Shu nodded and stepped back as the creatures charged the ghostly army. The Ladybug moves to face them and holds her yo-yo out in front of her. The yo-yo glows and the string solidify into a glowing red staff. 

Marinette’s mouth hangs open as the Ladybug slashes though the smoke monsters with ease. Shu chuckled as one falls to the ground and the Ladybug smashes its head in. “Yes Tikki’s old wielder lead a charge that finally defeated those monsters once and for all” Shu clapped as the last monster was slain and the army disappears. “But if one still lives…” she paused almost like she was admiring her reflection in Marinette’s eyes. “Then I’d suggest you-“

BEEP, BEEP, BEEP, goes Marinette’s alarm. Marinette yelps and flies out of bed, Tikki flies out of the earrings with enough speed she crash lands into the bed. Marinette slaps the clock silent and checks the time. “Look Marinette we might make it on time today” Tikki cries in delight, she looks over to her chosen to see the joy hadn’t spread. Marinette remains in bed and hugs her knees “Marinette, did you hear me?” Tikki flies over and her little heart breaks. “Everything’s going to be okay Marinette; Shu is just a bully with a big mouth. You’re making awesome process with the training and we’ll be done with her in no time.” 

Marinette looks up with her eyes puffy and red “Tikki I don’t care about Shu. There’s a creature out there that could find out I’m Ladybug” she grabs at her pigtails “what if it hurts my family or friends?” 

“We won’t let that happen” Tikki promised and put her nub on Marinette’s cheek. “I’ll keep an eye out for any sign of them and let the other Kwami know there might be one.” 

Marinette sucks in her tears “thank you Tikki.” She uncurls herself and looks at her clock “looks like we have time to have a proper breakfast today.”

Later on Lila is still in bed trying to sleep. Tutti is too busy squawking for her to get any extra Z’s in. “I thought Purrde respected my judgement more” Tutti complains loud enough for Lila to throw her blanket over her head. “I used my instinct to find a wielder capable of using my power. Is she the best wielder? No” he throws his nubs in the air. “She’s stubborn and lazy, but I know deep, deep down she has the hero’s spark. Like really deep down, like deeper than the deepest ocean-“

“Are you done?” Lila cuts in lifting her head from her pillow. Tutti whistles innocently and she rolls her eyes. “Honestly Tutti I am not that lazy” her alarm clock goes off with its final warning and she reaches down to grab her hoodie from yesterday. Without really aiming she chucks it at the clock knocking out the batteries and making it silent.

“Ah yes and a continuous liar” Tutti chirps and dodges an apple core she threw at him. Rather impressively it sails into the garbage can. Before he can taunt her again there’s a knocking on the window. 

Rena doesn’t wait for an answer and steps inside “hey girl, are you excited for today?” Rena grabs Lila and spins her around the room. She sets Lila down and spins her flute like a baton “I was up all night creating training for us to do”.

“Training” Lila whines rubbing her eyes “what kind of training?” 

“For you to be a superhero of course” Rena bops Lila’s nose. “After all attacking a bunch of cats isn’t the best thing for your image, so we need to get to work right away. I was thinking we could start with basic patrol, clean up a park, and entertain a crowd” she counts on her fingers missing the look of shock on the others faces.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa back it up” Tutti cuts in; Rena stops but keeps her cute little smile. “What do you mean attacking cats? The worst Lila has done is get one wet and I wouldn’t call that evil as much as I would call it stupid”.

“HEY” Lila snaps using one of the elastics meant for her hair as a sling shot. Tutti catches it midflight and drops it to the floor. Lila huffs and picks it up “look I didn’t attack any cats, whoever is saying that is lying”. 

“Not a nice feeling is it to have lies spread about you” Tutti jabs sticking out his tongue. Lila growls but doesn’t give him the satisfaction of a reply. 

Rena chuckles, the scene reminding her of when Trixx had first pointed out Lila’s lying habit. At least it had taught her to pay close attention to details. She clears her throat to refocus “so if you’re innocent then that means there’s an akuma out there throwing mud on your name” she laughs and jumps around. “This is just like when Ladybug and Chat Noir thought I was-well you” she points her finger at Lila. “Took me months to get them to trust me and let me join the team”.

“But I don’t want to join your team; I don’t want to join any team. I’m a solo hero” Lila snaps pushing Rena’s finger away. 

Rena’s raised an eyebrow but thought better than to change the subject. “Regardless we need to find this akuma and clear your name. I’m thinking the first thing to do is investigate the crime scene” she makes a fist and someone knocks at the door. 

“Lila, how is your ankle feeling today? Do you need a lift to school?” her mother calls out from the other side. 

“I uh-“Lila pauses as Rena shakes her head and crosses her arms. “Uh…” Tutti matches Rena’s pose floating in front of her face. Lila scowls and pouts in defeat “I’ll be fine today, thank you” she calls at last. The three wait while her footsteps grow quiet and the front door closes loudly. Lila turns back to Rena “There you happy? Now I have walk to school on a weak ankle”. Rena pulls an unimpressed expression “okay, okay my ankle is fine. I just hate walking”.

“Who said anything about walking?” Rena floats off the ground letting her scarf tail dangle over the floor. Almost giving off the illusion she was sitting on it. 

The two fly over the streets and land in the ally Raion had told the news channel about. “We don’t have time for a long search, so use those vulture eyes of yours to find something” Rena orders scanning the area over.

Avvina sighs and her eyes zoom in one random things around the ally “l see some kibble, feathers, a backpack, and oh” she pauses staring at Rena “a bossy pants”. 

Rena rolls her eyes and picks up one of the feathers “this must be why Raion thought it was you”. She turns it over “hey look at this”. 

Avvina rests her head on Rena’s shoulder “no way a feather dart” she says heavy on the sarcasm.

Rena rolls her eyes “no look closer” Rena points to some writing on the feather. Avvina snatches the feather and holds it up close to her face.

“Made in china” she reads and Rena gives her another annoyed look. Avvina checks again “Knight owl” 

“I GOT IT” Rena cries doing a cute little jump “Mr. Damocles must have become dark owl again; we just need to find him and take him out”.

“And then Raion will leave me alone” Avvina chimes in.

“Too bad that won’t happen” a third voice cackles. Rena turns and her face is smashed by a giant mallet. She groans and greets darkness. 

A few minutes later Caline Bustier walks down the empty school hallway and yawns into her cell phone pressed against her ear. “I can’t believe we got called into a staff meeting this early”. 

“Will you still be up for tonight?” Matvey asks on the other end. He’s leaning against a wall in a waiting room with three other people.

“I will be” Caline rubs her eye harshly. “I just wish I could have told Nathaniel about it before school hours. But again he was at Alix’s with a new project” her voice shakes with frustration and she pinches the bridge of her nose. “Sorry I just don’t know what’s going on with him these days. I mean it’s not just the sneaking out, it’s the secrets I know he’s keeping”. She sucks in a breath quickly “he used to tell me everything”.

“Caline, Caline” Matvey gently says on the other end. “Nathy is at that age where he…wants distance from his parents. As long as he’s safe you shouldn’t need to worry”. Although Caline can’t see it his smile is strained, he wasn’t trained in child psychology so he has no idea if that’s the best advice. 

“He isn’t sleeping at night Matvey” Caline stops walking and leans against the cold wall. “I tried to talk to him about it and he locked himself in his room” a tear slides down her cheek “he’s never locked me out before”.

Matvey sighed trying to find the right words. “What if we bring him with us tonight? I’ll cancel the reservation and we’ll go to a more family friendly restaurant. Have a…a family kind of dinner”.

“You don’t need to do that” Caline wipes her eyes and checks her reflection with a pocket mirror. Luckily her minimal makeup hadn’t smudged noticeably. “I know how excited you were to try the endless chicken wings”.

“I want to be part of your life more then I want to try and destroy my stomach with spicy wings. And Nathy was part of your life before I was” Matvey runs a hand though his hair. “So is he a chuck E cheese kind of guy or more MacDonald’s?” 

A small smile grows on her face “is that really what I’m worth? Macdonald’s”

Matvey catches the teasing instantly “oh no you are worth the Earths weight in gold, perhaps I should make us my special maple glazed duck tonight”. He fakes panic and hears her laugh on the other end.

“You focus on Mme Cesaire’s special dishes right now, have you done the interview yet?” 

“Not yet” Matvey turns at the sound of someone coughing and a man is holding the door open for him impatiently. Mme Cesaire is inside on an office chair looking over his resume. “I got to go, lo-goodbye Caline”. He kicks himself mentally, after everything they’d been though he still hesitated to say those words.

“Goodbye Matvey” Caline clicks the call closed and pauses looking at her background picture. It was one of her and Nathaniel in front of the school many years ago. The year he changed his last name to his father’s so people would stop teasing him about being the teacher’s son. The start of the distance he put between them. “I will find out what you’re hiding buddy, you can’t hide secrets from your mother forever”. She enters the staff room and puts her phone in her pocket.

“Secrets from you son eh?” the voice of Mr. Damocles made Caline jump three feet in the air. The principal was dressed as the knight owl again. Something Caline had sadly grown accustomed to, what she isn’t used to is the rest of staff wearing similar super hero outfits. The fencing teacher Mr. Armand wears a blue costume with a large U on his chest. He also has a bright red cape and a sword in his belt. Mme Mendeliev has two giant brown wings attached to her back and gold armour protecting her chest. Her thin bony arms are exposed to show off some of her bird shaped tattoos. She also has a giant spiked mallet resting casually beside her and she wears a helmet with golden metal feathers. Even the art teacher whose name she couldn’t remember wore a bizarre costume. Head to toe in green with a large ring on his finger glowing with an eerie light. 

Mr. Damocles jumps from the filing cabinet and super hero lands in front of Caline. “I have just the thing to help you with your son, the lasso of truth” he bows and holds up a large yellow lasso to her. 

Caline frowns and rolls her eyes “did you seriously call me in for cosplay? I told you eleven times that I wasn’t interested” she reaches for the door knob and the art teacher reacts. His ring lights up and a glowing hand grab the door from Caline and slam it shut. Caline gasps and shakes the knob but it’s no use, it was locked. 

She looks back fearfully as Mr. Armand floats in the air and Mme Mendeliev swings her mallet and cracks the floor on impact. Dark owl gets to his feet and stares her down. Now she noticed just how real his suit looked, the armour tough and the weapons sharp. “We need to protect our students from the monsters in our city. Wonder Lady, we need you to join our team. To join the Justice Assembly” he shoves the lasso into Caline’s hands. It lights up and covers her in a yellow light. When it died down she’s wearing a red armoured top with gold highlights. Her pants are blue with long red boots. Her hair is down in gorgeous waves with a golden tiara on her head. Her lasso is tied on her belt and her arms have arm cuffs with a red star. 

“Now that we have everyone, here the plan” Dark owl announces walking over to the table in the middle of the room. He points to Mme Mendeliev “Hawk woman, the knights have mistaken my feather bomb for Avvina. Use that to your advantage and capture them. He moves over to the others “Ultra-man and Green Spotlight make sure the students get to class” the art teacher and Mr. Armand bump fists. Finally Dark owl turns to Wonder Lady “you will come with me and question the prisoners, Mosquito has asked us to find a child of moon”.

“Yes sir” Wonder Lady’s phone goes off on the floor, it must have fallen out when she transformed. It was a snapchat from Matvey. Without checking it she smashes it with her boot. 

Meanwhile Nathaniel exits his house with his ear buds in. Duusu waves at him from the bag and he stares straight ahead. She huffs and pulls one of his ear buds out “don’t ignore me Nath, we need to talk”.

“What’s there to talk about?” Nath asks still staring ahead. “And stay in the bag I’m meeting Marc at the bakery” he adds going to put the ear bud back in.

Duusu yanks both earbuds away and sits on them. “Nath I’ve known for a while that you haven’t been sleeping. I want to know why you’re risking your health and why you’ve been hiding it from me”.

Denial is the first tactic Nathaniel uses “I’ve been sleeping; I just like to stay up late is all”. Duusu pouts unconvinced so onto the next tactic, diversion. “So do you want a peanut butter cookie or the peanut butter muffin?”

“I want you to tell the truth” Duusu flies in front of his face “and I know you’re wearing makeup to hide your dark circles”. She jabs under his eye and pulls back a nub browned with concealer. Nath rubs the eye by instinct before realising he’s rubbed off most of it on the left eye. It almost looks like he has a black eye. 

“I-I don’t want you to worry” Nath shrinks under her gaze; he hated that wide eyed lip trembling stare.

“I am worried” Duusu lets the tears fall “I know how important sleep is to humans and that without it they fall behind physically and mentally. You’re always so self-conscious about your height I don’t want you falling behind” she blabs so quickly Nath can hardly understand her. She cries louder and Nath hugs her against his chest for two reasons. One because it muffled her cries and two both of them needed it. 

Nath holds her until her cries have softened to whimpers. He pulls her back slightly “I promise to explain everything, just give me time to put my thoughts together”. 

Duusu sniffs and wipes her eyes “okay peacock promise”. Nath holds his thumb up and she wraps her back feather around it. She flies into the bag and they turn the corner to the Dupain Chang Bakery. 

“Hey Nath” Marc calls from across the street. He jogs over carrying a small bag under his arm. “Hope you don’t mind but I already got my breakfast” he held up the bag and the scent of vanilla took to the air.

Nathaniel shrugs and peeks at his watch “no biggie, we need to get going anyway”.

The school building is within sights when Wayhem comes around the corner with a green spinach smoothie. He bumps into Nathaniel thankfully only causing the drink to spill a tiny bit. Marc steps in and stables him before he fell over. “Morning Wayhem” Marc chirps and eyes the smoothie Wayhem’s hand “since when did you drink spinach smoothies?”

Panic flashes on Wayhem’s face, something that made Nath raise a brow. “Hey when you work at a smoothie joint all summer you get a taste for these things” Wayhem tries way too hard to appear casual against a non-existent wall. “So what’s in the bag?” Wayhem asks almost falling over and jumping back up. He sticks the smoothie in his back pocket which Nath found rather odd. Marc doesn’t pay it any mind digging in his bakery bag.

He pulls out a cookie shaped like Ladybug doing a hero pose “miraculous themed breakfast cookies." Wayhem’s face lights up and Marc chuckles “yes I got you one, the biggest one in fact” he puts the Ladybug in his mouth and pulls out a Paon Bleu cookie.

Wayhem gasps and marvels at the cookie “are you sure I’m worthy?” He points to the back feathers part of the cookie “to taste that godly ass?”

Nathaniel tilts his head confused and Marc just chuckles again. He takes his cookie out “yes Wayhem, I’m sure it will be heaven”.

“Wait what?” Nathaniel blurts as Wayhem takes a bite out of the cookie and pretends to be in flavour utopia. 

“It’s a meme” Marc explains digging into his bag again. He’s finished the Ladybug and moved on to a Queen Bee cookie. “Ladybug and Queen Bee have bubble butts. Chat Noir and Rena Rouge have muscular butts. Carapace’s looks like cardboard and”

“And Paon has gods ass” Wayhem cuts in doing a spin. His smoothie is now suspiciously empty. “That’s why he always hides it behind those feathers; we mere mortals can’t handle such beauty”.

Duusu muffled laughter is heard by Nath and he shushes her by slapping his bag pretending to be looking for his phone. His face is a mixture of confusion and disgust. He makes it natural by the time Marc looks over at him “want one?”

“I’m good” Nath says but his stomach protests loudly. Marc smirks and hands him another Paon Bleu cookie. 

They enter the building and screams bring their movements to a halt. The halls are chaos with students running for their lives from the two Justice Assembly members. Green Spotlight shoots a giant cage out of his ring that traps a bunch of kids. Ultra-man catches two kids in one hand and throws them into their classroom. He uses his laser vision to melt the knob and trap them inside. 

Nathaniel just sighs unimpressed while Wayhem has a huge misplaced smile on his face. “So who’s up for skipping class today?” Nath asks as the teacher hero’s spot them.  
Ultra-man charges and the boys split in different directions. Ultra-man hesitates then flies after Marc deeming him the slowest. 

Wayhem spots a hiding spot behind a bunch of thrown lockers and dashes behind them. He opens his shirt and Bobby flies out licking a small bit of smoothie off his lips. “It’s time Bobby; we’re going to be a superhero!”

“Aw so soon” Bobby mumbles, Wayhem nods jumping up and down.

“Bobby, let’s ride” 

Bobby gets sucked into the black ring and turns it green with five leaf shaped marks. Wayhem throws his hand out as a dark green glove appears on his hand. He does the wave and it covers the rest of him with lighter green on the torso and the bottom of his boots. He does some finger guns to his waist and a white scarf wraps around it, long enough to trail to the floor. He gets a shorter one around his neck then pulls a hood over his head. The hood stretches to his face and makes a mask that hides both his hair and face. Two large antennas pop out and he twirls around in excitement. He tries to do a hand stand and falls into a crumpled mess. Still with a smile he poses like one of your French boys. 

Marc yelps as he’s yanked into the air by his hoodie “all children need to get to class” Ultra-man states flying up towards Marc’s classroom. 

“Haven’t you heard?” a voice asks from above. Ultra-man looks up in time for a green figure to swoop in and steal the boy from his grasp. He lands with Marc in the princess hold. He pulls a cheeky grin “summers been extended”.

Ultra-man slams a punch into his open hand “not on my watch, you two are going to class”. The boys smile drops as Ultra-man shoots towards them. His scarves react like pairs of mechanical legs and carry the boys the other direction. The scarves easily climb to the second floor and swoops left then right to avoid Ultra-man’s attacks. It even jumps when Ultra-man tries his heat vision.

Nathaniel ducked inside the boys bathroom and smacks into Adrien. Once the two have recovered a huge smile grows on Nathaniel’s face. “Looks like I’m the first to see Chat Noir’s grand return” Duusu flies around them and settles beside her wielder.

Adrien doesn’t share their excitement; in fact he looked downright miserable. “I don’t think Chat will be returning anytime soon” he regrets those words at Nathaniel’s smile flipping to a scowl. 

“And why is that?” Nathaniel challenges and stepped into Adrien’s personal space. “And while we’re on that subject, I thought you had a backbone. But you’re letting Hawk moth govern your life, both of them!”

“You don’t understand” Adrien goes to push Nath back only for the redhead to grab his arms aggressively.

“Oh I think I understand all right, you’re so used to bending over backwards to please your father you can’t fathom being anything but a doll!” Nathaniel shoved Adrien back making him smack against a bathroom stall. “I suggest you find a place to hide” Nathaniel turns and activates his miraculous. Duusu is sucked in before she could object. Adrien has to duck to avoid Paon’s back feathers that sprang out so aggressively they might have impaled him. “Wouldn’t want to wreck Gabriel merchandise” he gives Adrien one last cold look and kicks the door open.

Plagg peeks out of Adrien’s shirt “are you just going to let him talk to you like that?” 

Adrien slides down the stall and sits on the floor “yes Plagg I am. By sacrificing Chat Noir he gets to still be Paon.”

“Yeah but he doesn’t know that” Plagg flies out waving his nubby arms. “Your father never said he didn’t have to know.” Adrien clenches his jaw in thought so Plagg continues “besides without Chat Noir who is going to throw themselves into danger to protect Ladybug? Not Paon that’s for sure.” 

Adrien gets to his feet and stares at himself in the mirror. As much as he hated to admit it Plagg was right. No one protected Ladybug like he did, but if he became Chat then Paon was toast. Adrien bit his lip then ran out of the bathroom, maybe there was a way he could satisfy both parties. 

Paon lands on the fallen cookie bag snapping a Chat Noir cookie under his foot. He just stares dumbfounded at this newbie carrying poor Marc around. It seemed the scarves had minds of their own and the green boy was just there for the ride. Paon’s about to step in when he hears the power up noise from Green Spotlight, he was charging Paon with a giant green bug net. Paon jumps out of the way last second and flips his fans out. “Alright let’s…uh…I can’t think of a one liner” Paon sighs and sidesteps the first attack.

The other boys yelp as they dodge a super powered punch just misses them and creates a hole in the building. The green hero gulps and his left antenna twitches. His scarves finally let him run and he follows the antenna to a particular part of the floor. Ultra-man follows ready to deliver another punch. At last second the green hero spins to face him with something tiny held in his antennas.

“Pest Control” the tiny thing grows instantly into a cow sized cockroach. Ultra-man punches the shell which absorbs the impact and bounces back at him. He’s sent flying back and crashes into Green Spotlight who was about to attack Paon with a tennis racket.

“Whoa, nice” Marc compliments as he’s carried down the building to safe ground again. Paon jogs up to them with a concerned frown. “So uh…who are you new hero?” 

He called him a hero, the green hero can’t help but giggle excitedly. He notices the confused look on Marc and clears his throat. “I’m Jade Aphid, the knight of sloth” he says with a bow.

“Jade aphid” Marc repeats dumbfounded. The newest knight was based off an aphid? Really?

“Yes because I am a gem few can afford” Jade flashes some finger guns like a complete dork. 

“Well then Jade, care to help me take out a few super hero wannabe’s?” Paon cuts in and turns to face Ultra-man and Green spotlight coming towards them. 

Jade jumps up and down with his fists against his chest “oh my god Paon is talking to me, are you seeing this?” He turns to Marc who now has a bit of an amused smile on his face. The giant cockroach lands next to Jade and makes a funny sound. Paon takes off and the cockroach gestures with its hind legs for Jade to get on. Jade giggles and climbs on “okay get you somewhere safe Ma…man in a cute hoodie, we’ll hold them off.” The cockroach charges like a bull and Jade holds on for dear life.   
Marc pauses watching the fight begin, with a smile he puts his hood on and runs away. 

 

Marinette walks around a corner casually when Hawk woman shoots over the rooftops cackling like a witch. Raion and Gorm are close behind her. Raion runs on a wall with one claw against it to keep balance. The heat from said claw sinks into the brick and leaves a glowing print behind it. She jumps off and lands on Gorm’s guitar as he zips by. He staggers for a second with the added weight and they drop down low enough to knock over an Agreste billboard. 

“Whoa, you’re more huffy than usual” Gorm jokes easing the guitar around a building. 

“We’ve wasted enough time chasing her, can this thing go any faster” Raion stamps down on the guitar. It suddenly blasts forward forcing her to grab onto Gorm so she didn’t fall off. It’s too much for Gorm to keep control and they crash into a wall.

Gorm grabs his guitar mid-air and plays a random cord that creates a slide of ice for them. Hawk woman circles them once laughing and flies off. “Are you sure that’s Avvina? Sounds like she’s got a one heck of a frog in her throat” Gorm offers his hand to Raion but she’s already on her feet. 

“Licorne had a full costume change and you had a pirate hat” Raion taps angrily at her wrist phone. She tapped the rainbow icon repeatedly and it displays a “signal not found” bubble each time. “If we had her lasso we could end this ridiculous chase already” she throws her hands down in frustration. The ice below her melts instantly. 

Gorm frowns and steps closer to her “Avvina isn’t the only thing frustrating you, I can feel your-“

She puts a finger against his lips “don’t start with that hippie nonsense again. I just have more important things to do right now then chase this brat”.

Her ears twitch and she turns to see Ladybug flying towards them. Her yo-yo attached to Hawk woman’s ankle. As result she was swinging completely out of control. She crashes into Gorm and by instinct he grabs onto her legs.

“Let go” Hawk Woman snaps flapping harder to stay in the air. Gorm holds on tight and digs his heels into the ground. Raion pounces into action and runs on all fours; she climbs up a telephone pole easily and positions herself. With a mighty leap she jumps on Hawk woman’s back. Hawk woman gulps as Raion’s miraculous and mouth light up with flames. 

At the last second Raion turns her head and fires her special attack up. The fire pushes them down into the Earth creating a decent sized crater in a parking lot of a sushi place.   
“Give it up Avvina” Raion orders stomping down on Hawk woman’s wings. She pulls her sword out and moves Hawk Woman’s head to the side. Her ears her hidden under her helmet so Raion yanks it off as Gorm and Ladybug run over.

Ladybug pulls a face “that isn’t Avvina, that’s Mrs. Mendeliev”.

Hawk Woman gasps and covers her face “my secret identity”. She grabs Raion’s legs with a growl and throws her off. Ladybug gets into a battle stance and Gorm catches Raion with one hand while the other held the thin end of his guitar. Hawk woman smashes her fists together and creates a bunch of sparks that transform into her giant mallet. She whistles and from the shadows dozens of drones shaped like her head surround the hero’s “you three will be coming with me!”

Hawk woman goes for Ladybug first and is blocked by Gorm’s guitar. Ladybug spins her yo-yo to make a shield from the drone’s laser fire. Raion angles her sword for the laser to bounce off and destroy three other drones. She makes a convincing lion growl only for her miraculous to begin its timer. 

“Go recharge, we’ll hold her off” Gorm orders pushing Hawk woman back and hitting another drone. Raion hesitates but has no choice but to run into the sushi joint. Inside she snags a bag from some innocent costumer with the promise that she’ll pay them back later. She goes into the girls bathroom right as Purrde gives out.

Back at the battle Gorm and Ladybug are back to back. “Looks like I’m a replacement Chat Noir” Gorm jokes spinning his guitar like Chat would his baton. 

“You’ll have to be more than that to replace my kitty” Ladybug snatches a drone and flings it at Hawk woman. “Cover me, I’m going to summon my charm” she orders swinging up to the rooftops.

There’s a joke to be made there but Gorm doesn’t take it too occupied with a dozen drones surrounding him. He smirks “how about you guys chill?” He slams a cord on his guitar creating a small sound wave that knocks them all back. One sails over and creams Ladybug in the back of the head. He flinches “no freeze them not blast them back” he whispers adjusting the strings. 

“Perhaps you need a lesson on music” Hawk woman says with a sneer “this is heavy metal!” she almost smashes his face but his guitar blocks it just in time. 

“I’m more of a rock girl” A ball sized rock smashes into Hawk woman’s face. She’s falls back and Ladybug lands back down giving Gorm a side eye for smacking her with the drone.

Ladybug takes off the golden mask and smashes it on the ground. Hawk woman’s costume melts off leaving a confused Mrs. Mendeliev behind. “That had to be the easiest lucky charm yet” Gorm says poking the rock with his foot.

“That wasn’t my charm” Ladybug holds up a comic book “according to this, Hawk woman’s power comes from her helmet.” She offers Mendeliev a hand to her feet “we need to track down Dark Owl, he’s the one behind all this.” 

“He has something on his wrist” Mendeliev mutters rubbing the sides of her head. “I saw it moments before the armour covered him.”

Ladybug nodded and threw her yo-yo out to the nearest building “thanks Mendeliev, we’ll beat him before the next chemistry test.”

“Man I hate those” Gorm mumbles shooting off after Ladybug. Mendeliev scratches her chin and decides to head inside the restaurant for some early lunch. 

Raion leaves the restaurant to find dozens of scrap metal but no battle. She touches her miraculous and watches the sun streaks flash blue, pink, indigo and green. She lets out a surprised gasp and keeps it on green. One streak remained lit and changed when she tilted the miraculous like a compass. She smirks and follows the direction it pointed.

 

“And this is the story all about how my life got flipped turned upside down” Avvina sings sarcastically while Rena struggles against the ropes. They were tied upside down above a tank of boiling green liquid. Rena’s flute is in Dark Owl’s hand and the hoops that normally went around Avvina’s ankles and wrists in the corner. Wonder Lady has her lasso of truth wrapped around the girls and is patiently waiting for Rena to answer the question she asked.

Rena kicks Avvina as hard as she could with her legs tied up “would you shut up, I’m trying to think of a plan out of this”. Avvina sticks her tongue out and whistles the rest of the tune.

Dark Owl slams his fist onto a computer board “answer our question, where is the child of moon?”

“I don’t know what that is” Rena blurts with the lasso glowing softly indicating it was working.

“Maybe it’s a band” Avvina suggests.

“Actually I think Jagged Stone sang a song called that. ARE YOU LOOKING FOR JAGGED STONE BECAUSE HE’S IN ENGLAND” she yells to be heard over the bubbling goo.

Dark Owl slams the flute on the ground “no that’s not what I’m asking”. He waves his hand and Wonder Lady removes her rope from them. She does so with enough haste that the rope swings slightly and the girls scream. He slaps his forehead “how are we supposed to find the child of moon if no one knows what that is?” 

“Find Paon Bleu, he will know” the computer has a female voice this time. It flips on and instead of Albert there’s a lady with a white face and eyes like black holes. “But remember I need him alive” she adds with a tinge of mischief.

“Hoo, Hoo White Mosquito, what have you done with Albert” Dark Owl cries.

“He’s fine, I just shut him down temporary” Mosquito replies. Because both teachers are watching the screen neither notice Rena and Avvina arguing and starting to make the rope swing. 

“Would you quit whistling you incompetent butt monkey” Rena snaps managing to wiggle one hand enough to scratch Avvina’s arm slightly.

“Ow” Avvina whines overdramatically “you are the worst sidekick ever”.

“What the fox makes you think I’m the sidekick. I’ve been a hero longer then you’ve been annoying” Rena hisses as their feet engage in a slap fight. 

“My costume is way cooler, plus I can whistle” Avvina whistled to prove the point. 

“I play the flute! I can fudging whistle!” Rena snaps and blows a sharp whistle. Avvina’s eyes widen and Rena takes that as a victory “ha take that”.

“Dude, your lips just glowed” Avvina whisper yells. 

“Glowed?”

“Like you had Halloween lipstick on” 

The light bulb goes off over Rena. Her lips glowed like Trixx when he does a spell. She puts on a cheeky smirk “let me show you why I’m the best”. She whistles a certain tune and her lips glow and sparkle. She hits the final note and grins like the Cheshire cat “camouflage”.

Wonder Lady turns away from her boss’s argument and looks back at the prisoners. “What happened to Rena?” she swings her lasso around her and pulls her to the edge of the bowl. 

“She disappeared” Avvina says innocently. 

“How is she fighting your truth lasso?” Dark Owl asks not noticing one of Avvina’s pigtails floating up and the ring plucked off. It sailed over to Dark Owl’s belt like it was tied to a string and hooked onto an owl shaped ninja star. 

“No one is able to fight my truth lasso’s effects, she’s telling the truth” Wonder Lady says tightening her grip. The ninja star is yanked off the belt and quickly yanked into the space Rena occupied once. Avvina notices this and has to think fast to keep Dark Owl from noticing.

“I think your hair is really pretty down” Avvina blurts as part of the ropes loosen around her legs.

Wonder Lady smiled and run a hand down her hair shyly “thank you”

“Don’t listen to her; she’s trying to distract you” Dark Owl snaps.

“I’m just being honest, I love things not tied up” Avvina chirps as the ropes snap off and she catches herself on the metal railing. She holds the handstand and her cape flares out into the wings “me included”.

“How did?” Dark Owl is suddenly kicked across the face by an invisible Rena. The flute is ripped from his grasp and Rena uses it to trip up Wonder Lady. The teachers are thrown against the wall in a crumpled heap. Rena makes herself visible and dusts her hands off. 

“I’ll admit that was cool” Avvina says clicking her bracelets back on and flipping a throwing hoop into existence. “But not as cool as me” she adds throwing the hoop up and catching it with her other hand. 

“You keep tell yourself that” Rena says calling Ladybug on her flute.

“Rena I’m glad you called, we got a whole league of super villains here” Ladybug jumps on Gorm’s guitar for a lift. 

“Yeah, we already met Dark Owl and Wonder Lady” Rena watches as Avvina created a hula hoop and played around with it.

“Don’t underestimate Dark Owl, Chat and I had a hard time with him last time” 

“Don’t worry LB we got it under…” Rena casually spins over to the teachers only to discover they were gone “control?”

“Good we’re heading to the school now, meet you there” Ladybug doesn’t pick up on Rena’s sudden drop in confidence. She ends the call leaving the two girls standing with every hair up in alarm.

“Good day Ladies” Albert’s robotic voice booms making Rena yelp and Avvina’s wings to spring up to make her look bigger. Albert’s face appeared on the wall with a blank expression “Master Owl has stated you are not to leave” he drones and the room lights up with red alarms. The only exit started to close like a garage door.

Avvina quickly clinks five hoops together and chucks it at the door. The rings bend when the door touches it but hold strong to stop it. “Come on that won’t hold forever” Avvina and Rena race though the door before the rings gave out.

“Not bad Avvie” Rena chirps running normally while Avvina has adopted the Paon/Naruto run. “Let’s hurry and meet up with the others, Dark owl must be going after them.”

“Wait, isn’t Dark Owl and the rest of them comic book characters?” Avvina asks as they turn a corner to a seemingly endless hallway.

“Yeah what about it” Rena clicks on her flute as they run. Her flute records their movement to make a map of sorts. 

“My uncle is a writer for that strip; this must be the Justice Assembly’s secret hideout. I know where to go!” Avvina darts left down another hall and Rena follows her. 

About fifteen minutes later Rena and Avvina pass by the room they were held captive for the third time. “Are you sure you know where we’re going?” Rena crosses her arms annoyed.

Avvina puts on her best confident expression “of course I do, we just need to take a left here.” She turns without looking and a hand grabs the back of her cape suddenly.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you” a teasing voice sang from above. Lune hung upside down from a large air vent. Avvina’s mouth hangs open as Lune delicately flips over and lands in front of them. “Down there is Hawk woman’s training room, you don’t want to go in there.”

“Yeah for your own good” Licorne chimes in climbing out of the vent to show her costume was dirty and covered in feathers. “I don’t think I can ever eat a chicken again.”

Rena tilts her head “so were you two captured as well?”

“Not quite” Lune smirks and Avvina has to look away “I thought something was off when Raion said Avvina attacked those cats. So I roped in Licorne to do some investigating and it brought us here.” She clicks on her wrist and a hologram map shaped like a ball with many tunnels appeared. “The computer Albert has complete control of this place. Every time we get close to the exit it changes the layout so we remain trapped” Lune pointed to a part of the map where a hallway was replaced with a dead end. 

“We are trying to find Albert’s power source and over load it with power” Licorne added pointing to her horn. How that didn’t get stuck in the vents is a mystery. 

“Your mission is futile” Albert’s robotic voice chimes from above. The girls all get into fighting poses each facing a different dark hallway. A camera hidden in the walls looks at them with a green lens. “I can see your every movement and I will keep you down here until the master can return.”

“Quick, into the vents” Lune orders waving everyone into the cramped air vent. She’s last and she slams the gate shut behind her.

“I may not be able to see you there but I do know the vents” in Albert’s eyes a map appears with a X-ray of the vents. “I will find you” he whispers moving to a camera where the girls were quietly sneaking out of. 

In a completely different room the girls crawl out of the vents “let’s hurry; I don’t know how long those illusions will fool him.” Rena whispers taking Lune’s hand to help her out. 

The girls approach a giant computer with all kinds of buttons and wires in front of it. Lune is first to start typing away at the controls “okay all I have to do is…”

Avvina just stares at Lune babbling about computers while Rena hides a smirk with her hand. Licorne has the same expression and she wiggles her eyebrows at Rena. The two chuckle earning an annoyed look from Avvina and a confused one from Lune.

“Anyway this should do it” Lune finishes typing and a large red button lights up. She turns to Avvina “care to do the honours?”

“Oh I’d be honoured” Avvina says then regrets it, fudge that was awful. Why did her mouth spout such trash around Lune? Avvina shakes the thoughts away and hits the button with her fist. 

Nothing happens so Avvina hits the button again. She goes for a third time when Albert’s face lights up the giant screen. “You are turning into real pests, I think I shall exterminate   
you now” red alarm lights surround them. The doors slam shut and the vent is blocked with a thick metal door. 

“Lune, do something” Licorne cries grabbing Lune’s shoulders. Lune desperately types only for Albert to shut her out by electrifying the keys. Lune yelps and falls back into   
Licorne. Rena digs her flute into the edge of the door trying to pry it open. A horrible hiss of gas reaches Lune’s ears and the girls begin to cough.

“We need to get out of here” Lune cries as Licorne joins Rena trying to open the vent.   
Avvina’s eyes water and she flips a hoop into her hand. She stumbles and chucks a hoop towards Albert “ALL MINE!”

“So how you liking having super powers” Paon jokingly asks dodging sharp paint brushes Green fired at him. Jade is punched off his bug by Ultra man and his scarves catch him before he face planted.

“I think I should have listened to the tutorial” Jade groans trying to get to his feet. Ultra-man stomps on him making that impossible.

“Children should not have super powers; the responsibility should be left with the adults” Ultra-man swipes past the scarves and grabs Jade’s ringed finger.

“Paws off” Raion’s sword intercepts his hand. “You should face a real opponent” she challenges slashing him back with a wave of fire from her blade. 

“Let me show you how a real sword master fights” Ultra man draws his sword and Raion pounces on him. With speed of lightning their weapons clash and shoot sparks around the battlefield.

Gorm helps Jade up to his feet “You okay new guy?”

Jade stares at him dumbstruck “I’m gay-I mean great I’m great.” He looks for a way out of the situation and his giant cockroach comes to his rescue. It makes a few clicking noises he’s able to understand. “Good idea papa roach, let’s get the students out of here” he climbs on and the two race down to the nearest classroom. The cockroach bites down on the door and rips it clean off easily. 

Gorm chuckles at him and Ladybug watches from afar. Shu was not going to be happy that all the knights were active now. But there was no time to worry about that now. She took the time to recharge so she doesn’t have to worry about that for now. She scanned over the chaos and spots Juleka staring at her trapped inside the classroom. With someone as strong as Ultra-man and crafty as Green Spotlight they needed all the help they could get. 

“Paon, try to trick Greenie into opening that door” Ladybug orders using her ear piece to communicate. It was something that was so handy it was just placed on the costumes right off the bat. 

Paon nods and just narrowly misses getting impaled by a giant pencil. Green spotlight fires a paint bomb at him next which he avoids doing a spin like a figure skater. He landed in front of the door and he stuck his tongue out in a taunt. Green Spotlight growls and fires a giant clawed hand at him. Paon waits till the last second to roll out of the way and Green grabs the door instead. Green Spotlight ends up getting slammed by the door while everyone in the classroom made a break for the exit. 

Ladybug jumps down and plucks the ring off Green Spotlight before he can recover. “That makes two Justice Assembly members taken down.” The art teacher gets up confused and bolts out of there. He runs past the staircase that Adrien was hiding underneath. 

Adrien takes a photo of the unfolding chaos for Alya and so he could zoom in. Raion was still locked in her battle with Ultra-man and was insistent that she didn’t need help. So Gorm was just watching them half amused, half concerned. Ladybug was explaining to Queen Bee what was going on and buzzing up a plan with Paon. He zoomed in on Ladybug’s face and felt his heart twitch to be beside her, listening to her plan and being a part of it. He zoomed back a little for another Lady Blog shot and his face registration puts a square over their faces. Adrien gasps seeing Dark Owl creeping towards them. Without thinking he runs towards them.

Ladybug hears him first “Adrien? What are you-“

Adrien charges and pushes all three of them out of the way. Dark Owl slams an electrified punch into him instead. Adrian screams and his skeleton becomes visible for a split second. 

“ADRIEN” all three of them cry as Adrien falls to his knees. Paon steps in to grab him before he hits the floor. 

Bee pulls out her sceptre, Paon’s back feathers spread and Ladybug spins her yo-yo. “You’re in trouble now bird brain” Bee snaps spinning her weapon twice then pointing it at him “Honey trap!” Dark Owl dodges the spray of honey and throws a punch towards Bee. She dodges it and catches his arm “let’s see if owls can fly” she heaves to throw him over her shoulder. Nothing happens and she tries again with a loud battle cry. Still nothing and she drops all dignity to hang off his arm trying to do anything. Dark Owl finally has enough and throws Bee into Ladybug with enough force they both go flying. 

Paon picks up Adrien and carries him away from the fight. He gently places him on the ground in one of the empty classes and finds Chrysalid inside. Almost every part of the classroom had a white butterfly resting on it or fluttering around. His stomach churns but he pushes it down, focus on the bigger picture. 

“Keep an eye on him, please” Paon’s voice comes out more pathetic than he wanted. Chrysalid nods with a nervous expression. 

It heightens to panic when a rope wraps around Paon’s torso, he’s turned to face Wonder Lady. “Paon Bleu you’re coming with me” she yanks him into her arms and uses a super jump to get to the roof in record time.

Ultra-man and Raion have their swords pushed against each other with Raion seemingly winning with Ultra-man on his knees. Raion has a cocky smile “I really am the best sword fighter in Paris.” 

Dark Owl trips Ladybug and onto Queen Bee trying to get up from the floor. “Ultra-man, quit playing with the lioness, victory is within our grasp.”

Ultra-man shrugs and grabs Raion’s hands. He easily pulls her sword from her grasp and throws her into Gorm so fast she looks like a comet. The two would have kept going had Jade and his cockroach not shown up and caught each of them with his scarves. “I got everyone out” Jade yelps and ducks as Ultra-man threw Raion’s sword at his head. It sinks into the stone wall behind it like a hot knife through butter. “Now what do we do?”

Raion gets to her feet and gives Gorm a hand “we’re teaming up.” She pulls her sword out of the wall and charges Dark Owl. She slashes his arm before it could punch the girls again and lands in the classic ninja pose in front of them. “Ladybug go after your teammate, we got these goons.”

Ladybug looks over to the roof and spots Paon being held by Wonder Lady. “We have to act fast or she’ll make him reveal who he is.”

She throws her yo-yo up “Lucky charm” Ladybug catches a silver serving tray “and just what am I supposed to do with this?”

Queen Bee’s reflection joins Ladybug’s on the tray “you going to serve them, as in punching?” Bee smacks her fist against her open palm. It’s so weak there may as well have been a squeaky toy sound effect. Her comb gives its second warning.

“Go recharge I’ll find a solution” Ladybug orders already scanning the battlefield. 

“Not a chance, I’m saving my bird” Bee responds stubbornly. 

“Alright then” Ladybug knew time was off the essence “Bee, use your super strength to hold down Ultra-man.”  
“Piece of cake” Bee flies over and her wings light up. See she still had it. She just had to stop thinking about Sabrina whenever she tried to summon it. She had her super friends, her fans, and her family to give her strength. Ultra-man blocks his face and Bee grabs his arm to trap behind his back.

Her wings suddenly lose their glow and Bee face plants on the ground. Ultra-man laughs and picks her up by the wings “someone’s been skipping PE class.” He taunts and throws her into the closet on the other end of the room where the basketballs were kept. 

Ladybug flinches watching a ball roll by, so much for that. She needed a new plan and fast. She puts the tray under her arm and swings up to the roof. She’s careful to stay behind Wonder Lady and slowly approaches. 

“Who is the child of moon?” Wonder lady questions holding Paon up like he weighed nothing. Paon bites his tongue even when salty crimson fills his mouth. He had a feeling telling her wasn’t the best idea and he was going to hold off even if he lost his tongue over it. 

Ladybug holds her breath getting closer to the two. She takes the tray out and holds it at arm’s length. The power of the lasso increases and Paon can’t hold it in any longer “It’s me, I am” he blurts.

Ladybug freezes in pace her mouth falls open but no sound comes out. She must have misheard, there was no way…no possible way Paon was a child of moon. Paon would never hurt his team, he would never. She makes eye contact with Paon and sees a bit of blood sliding out of his mouth. Just like the smoke monsters in her training dream. Tears tickle her eyes and she gasps loud enough for Wonder Lady to hear. 

“You’re just in time Ladybug, ever wondered who Paon truly is?” Wonder Lady moves Paon to face her. Confusion and fear cover Paon’s face, never had their leader looked at him like that. Wonder Lady shows no mercy to the blood trickling down his chin “who are you under that mask?”

Paon looked up at the woman he had known all his life, “I’m…I’m your buddy.” Her eyes widened and time seemed to stop for a moment. Her grip loosened and she touches the side of his face with her hand. His eyes shiver with tears “I wanted to tell you, you’ve always been like a super hero to me.”

“Buddy” she whispers and suddenly grunts in pain. She falls on one knee holding her head “no, I won’t tell you.” Wonder Lady opens her eyes to see her reflection on Ladybug’s lucky charm. She had always loved that her boy had inherited her eye colour. And now they must have looked identical, filled with fear and pain. Mosquito screams at her to tell her the name and Wonder Lady screams in return. She was a teacher, a mother, she didn’t hurt children.

She protected them.

Chrysalid’s butterfly absorbs into her tiara and Mosquito’s voice is silenced. A relived tear slides down her face as the butterfly mask covers her vision. She looks over at Paon and the delight on his face as the magic covers her. When it released her costume had minor changes to it. The stars on her chest and bracelets were now butterflies and her mask had changed into a dark blue butterfly one.

She turned her gaze to Ladybug and offered a gentle smile “thank you Ladybug.” 

Ladybug gets over her shock and returns the smile. It falls when she hears the beeping warning from her miraculous. “We need to finish this before the final bell” she looks over the two then the battle down below. “Okay here’s the plan.”

“Three against two doesn’t seem very fair” Dark Owl jokes seeing Wonder Lady back flipping over them. She lands behind the assembly “nice of you to join us Wonder La-OW” Wonder Lady had wrapped her lasso around him and wresting style slammed him to the ground. 

“Have you lost your mind Wonder Lady?” Ultra-man tosses Raion back like a rag doll. 

Wonder Lady has Dark Owl in a choke hold and a huge grin on her face. “If anything I’ve regained it. How’s your eyes Ultra-man?”

“Why don’t I show you” Ultra-man fires his laser vision at her. Wonder Lady smirks and positions her wrist so the laser hit the bracelet. It shot the laser up to Ladybug with her serving tray who deflects the laser back to Ultra-man. She guides it to cut off Ultra-man’s cape and the rest of his costume follows.

Dark Owl grunts unable to free himself from the lasso “you’ll never win, not when I have the mega suit and Albert on my side.” On cue a giant TV comes out of the ground and Albert’s face flickers to life. “Albert activate code extermination” Dark Owl orders.

“No” Albert states plainly.

“WHAT?” Dark Owl roars.

“Oh Dark Owl” Avvina’s voice comes out of the speakers. Albert’s face moves away to show the girls in Albert’s control room each with sneaky smiles. “Your computer works for me now, he’s all mine” she twirls a hoop on her finger. “Now Albert can you deactivate his armour please.”

“As you wish my lady” Albert says and to Dark Owl’s horror his armour folds back into his watch. 

Ladybug spots the mosquito bite sticking out of his sleeve and puts her yo-yo on it. It sucks out the poison and she activates her miraculous ladybug. The damage to the school is fixed and Albert’s control room is turned back into the boiler room. 

Wonder Lady’s costume falls and she holds out her hand for the white butterfly. A loud ringing makes them both jump and Caline pulls out her fixed cell phone. She answers it quickly “hello Matvey”.

“Caline, I heard what happened on the news. Are you and Nathy okay?” 

Caline lets out a relived sigh “yes Matvey” she looks over at Paon running to a spot to lose the costume “I think we’re okay.” 

Adrien groans and opens his eyes to see Nathaniel and Duusu staring at him. Ladybug’s cure had fixed his injuries but he was still a little shaken. “That was a shocking turn of events huh?” Adrien jokes moving up to a sitting position. 

Nathaniel’s shoulders relax “if you’re making bad jokes you weren’t fried that bad.” He slaps Adrien’s arm making the other flinch “what were you thinking running into battle without a costume? You could have been seriously hurt.”

“I know, I just wanted to help” Adrien says weakly. 

“You could help by being Chat Noir. Chat Noir can take a few hits when he uses his body as a freaking flesh shield.”

“I can’t be Chat Noir right now, my father…” Adrien pauses to look at Plagg sitting on his lap. Plagg gestured to Nathaniel and Adrien sighed. “My father threatened to tell everyone what he did to you, stuff you don’t remember.”

The scowl is back “try me” Nathaniel growled crossing his arms. “Every time I close my eyes I remember another time he brainwashed me.” He ignores Duusu’s gasp and blinks back tears. "But I get it, you were trying to protect me like you always do to the team. I'm sorry for what I said back there, I was a total ass." 

"It's alright, I should have told you sooner" Adrien replies scratching behind his head.

“so you can’t transform with this over your head?”

Adrien’s eyes are shaking “I’m sorry, I there was something I could do.”

Nathaniel dug his nails into his arms “there is actually” he smirks and stands up. “Chat’s going to make his grand return tomorrow, and you’re going to take my shift.”

“Nath I just said”

“Hawk Moth won’t have any power over you” Nathaniel cuts him off “because Paon is going to tell the world first.” 

That night Alya is sound asleep when there’s a knock at her window. She groans and makes her way over to the knocker expecting Avvina on the other side. She yanks open the window ready to make her buzz off. Her eyes perk slightly at Paon Bleu on the other side “Alya of the Lady blog, interested in an interview?”

“I must be dreaming” Alya mutters turning away to go back to bed.

“It’s to spite Hawk moth” Paon adds quickly. 

Alya swishes her hair to look almost like it did in the morning and picked up her phone “okay dream or not, this I got to hear.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Funny how Alya used to be a character I didn't write often because I was worried I wouldn't get her character right. And now she's been a big part of like the last four chapters.


	16. Kitty!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The super Akuma boogeyman attacks Paris with an army of nightmares. The fire and ice pairing get some spotlight. Ladybug misses her kitty and Chat gets his butt in gear.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Big news before we start. I will be away with developing worlds starting May 4 to June 4. During that time I won't have access to my laptop and thus the next chapter won't be coming out till late June. I hope you guys can wait until then and I promise to get to work on the next chapter as soon as I can.

Chapter 16 Kitty  
“Putrid little butterfly, filthy thing” Mosquito hisses and stomps across the rocky landscape. Based off the drag marks from her swords she had been doing this awhile. “Take away my control, right when I’m about to know his name!” she turns to a rock and does a spin move to slice it in half. 

“Temper, temper” a cool male voice teases from the somewhere. He steps out from behind a rock and moves towards her without fear. He was tall man with broad shoulders. He wore a black robe with dozens of clear insect wings decorating the collar. His face hidden in a helmet with giant red eyes and a long extended mouth shaped like a hose. “What does it matter that you don’t know his name? You already know of his power.”

"You wouldn't understand" Mosquito tilted her head “when did you reform?”

He stretches his arms and his armour creaks and groans. “There is no concept of time here, but I have been watching your struggle long enough.” He holds out his hand and a cloud of darkness swirls around in it “my agent is ready to activate the next corrupt, perhaps you can have your revenge on the butterfly then.”

Her smile is too friendly for the thoughts in her head “you always know just what to say”. 

“Okay” Ladybug says alone in a small park in the quietest part of Paris. The only sound the hum of a nearby traffic light. She stands with her legs apart and held the yo-yo in front of her. She closes her eyes to concentrate and spins the yo-yo like an infinity symbol. She walks toward a target she had made out of a tree. The string starts to glow a soft white. She throws the yo-yo towards the tree and it bounces off it. Ladybug groans in defeat as the string’s glow dies out once again. “I’m never going to get this right” she drops to her knees and puts her head in her hands. 

She suddenly jumps up and leans against a tree “you’ll get it my lady; you almost had it that time.” She makes her voice low and scratchy trying to mimic Chat’s voice.

“All I’ve done so far is make a flashlight” she speaks in her normal voice this time. She tosses the yo-yo on the ground in frustration then jumps back into her Chat pose.

“This is more than yesterday, by tomorrow you’ll have mastered this spell” Ladybug picks up the yo-yo and hands it to herself. 

“You really think so?” 

“I’m paw-sitive my la-DYYY” Ladybug jumps spotting Carapace leaning against the tree with a smirk. “Uh Carapace, hi I was just-“

“It’s alright Lady-dude, I miss him too” Carapace steps forward with his hands up. “So can I ask what you’re doing or is this secret ladybug business?”

Ladybug sighs and does the walk the dog trick with her yo-yo “it’s a special power I don’t unlock until I bond with my kwami. Like you with shell-ter.”

“How’d you know I could do that anyway? I asked Wayzz and all he said is he’s glad I’ll start eating salads.”

“Wayzz told me the night it happened, he found me while on patrol” Ladybug replied with a smirk. “He said it was the fastest he’s ever bonded with his wielder, you should be proud.” A faint blush is visible on him in the city lights; he scratches the back of his neck with a shy smile. Ladybug turns away from him and takes a deep breath. Carapace watches as she gets the string to glow and take two steps towards the tree. Then she trips over a root and face plants into the tree. 

Once he’s in control of his laughter Carapace steps in front of her “any way I can help with this?”

Ladybug spits out a twig from her mouth “actually yes” she grabs him by the shoulders and moves him to the middle of the park like he weighed nothing. “You’re going to be the target” she states bopping his nose. 

Curse his helpful nature “is this going to hurt?” 

“Not unless you’re an akuma” Ladybug teases and begins spinning her yo-yo. Carapace can almost make out the words she was muttering as the string glows and looks like a floating infinity sign. Carapace covers his eyes as she chucks the yo-yo at him and it wraps around his body. It had a warm heat to it like a hug from a loved one. And it was so tight Carapace gasped for breath once it released. Ladybug zips her weapon back and flips it open. Her eyes sparkle and she jumps around in a circle “it worked, we did it!”

She shows him the screen and on it was a scan of his body. It had things like heartbeat, estimated age, mood and energy levels and even a corruption level currently at zero. “So it’s a scanner?” Carapace asks raising an eyebrow at the green energy flooding though the scans veins. 

“Yep and if you had even one percentage of corruption I would have found it” Ladybug chirps saving the scan to the newest app on the phone part. “Thanks for your help Carapace.”

“Glad I could help” Carapace’s wrist plays the first few notes to a lullaby “and that signals the end of patrol, see you later Lady-dude.” He turns and front flips into a tree then use his grappling hook on a nearby building. 

He had improved since his first few days as Carapace. Ladybug can’t help but remember when he tripped over his own feet every minute. She smiles as he vanishes from view, her entire team was improving every day. 

A message beeps from her yo-yo and she checks it. It was a notification from the scan that the subject had minor physical damage to his noggin. Ladybug chuckled closing out and heading home, some things never changed.

Irrin never thought he’d be here, gazing up at the half moon while swimming in a small salad bowl filled with water. Luka played a gentle tune over the soft splashes of water against the boat. He was in a hammock rocking gently with the river down below. The water was cool and the air was warm. Gorm was a genius for convincing Raion to take the night off. Irrin rolled onto his back and his eyes greeted the stars. Luka finished his tune and let out a deep sigh. 

Irrin turns over and blows water from his blowhole “another heart song I presume?”

Luka chuckled dryly “yeah, a girl I met a while back. Her heart song is this beautiful and complex wave” he played the first few notes again. “At first I answered it…but then I discovered it wasn’t meant for me” he turned his eyes to the sky “so I let her go, pushed her in the direction of her heart song”. He let out a big breath like he was trying to mimic Irrin’s blow hole. “Was that the wrong thing to do?”

“I think if more people acted like that, we’d have less misery in the world” Irrin flew out of the bowl and landed on Luka’s shoulder. “Have you noticed how many stars are in the sky?” He asks leaning back against Luka’s neck. He made Luka’s shirt damp but neither minded. “There are millions of them, some big and bright that last thousands of years. Others are small and disappear before they can be named.”

“Plenty of fish in the sea” Luka mutters with a small smirk. Irrin had twirled twice then cuddled into his shirt like a dog. He looks back up to see one of the stars growing bigger. Luka stared for a moment never having seen a shooting star before. It gets brighter and Luka scrambles out of the hammock. The star crashes into the hammock with enough speed to rip it off its handles and into the table with the bowl. The bowl falls over and the water sizzles against the star. Luka cautiously approaches the star hearing growls. He peeks over the over turned table to see Raion trapped inside the hammock. Her arm stretched to reach her sword lying on the deck. 

Even with her claws out the sword was just out of her reach, Raion snarls and her claws heat up. A hand suddenly grabs her shoulder and the heat vanishes. “Need a hand there?” his voice has a tinge of amusement to it that makes her ears twitch. She looks over to find a boy whose face was familiar but she couldn’t place the name. “Here let me help you” he says reaching towards her. 

“Don’t touch me” Raion snaps and his hands spring back. The water keeping her hair flat evaporated into steam leaving her hair sticking out at all angles. “I am leader of the knights of sin, I don’t need any help” she hisses continuing to struggle against the rope. 

“Well Miss Knight I kinda want my hammock back in one piece” Luka bends at his knees to be at eye level with her. Raion pauses with her mouth open to try and use her fangs against the stubborn hammock. She hesitates then relaxes, giving him permission to proceed. He carefully untangles her feeling her eyes on him the entire time. He tosses it aside and offers his hand to her “so do you normally cannon ball into people’s hammocks in the middle of the night?” 

Raion takes his hand thankfully recalling her claws beforehand. “No, not commonly” her voice is as flat as her expression. “Now if you’ll excuse me I need to get going” she turns to leave then stops. She looks back to him “I’m uh, sorry about your hammock”. 

“Don’t worry about it, I’m just glad I could help you cool off” Luka jokes spinning the salad bowl on his finger like a basketball. Raion’s eyes spark with amusement for half a second and she super jumps out of sight. 

Irrin flies out of Luka’s pocket “just out of curiosity, what does her heart song sound like?”

Luka picks up his guitar and plays a random string. He pauses with a frown “I don’t know”. Irrin follows him over to the edge of the boat and Luka sits on the railing “she has this wall around her that’s messing with the sound. I can’t quite hear her, not yet”.

Raion hits the ground outside her home and her costume lifts with a glowing yellow light. Purrde zips ahead and phases inside the front door. Kagami takes a deep breath listening to every click Purrde made undoing the lock. 

They had to be quiet. Kagami’s mother may have lost her eyes but more than made up for it with her ears. Kagami was positive her mother could hear a pin drop into a puddle of molasses a mile away. 

Purrde unlocks the door and bows her head with her eyes closed. Which meant her mother was inside but not awake. They could afford small missteps but nothing more. Kagami covers her mouth with a scarf to soften her breathing and gently pushes the door open. She slips off her shoes and puts on a pair of ultra-fluffy socks. 

She closes the door and steps into the dark hallway. Purrde puffs her cheeks out and they glow softly like she had fireflies in them. Phone light had some electric buzz to them that her mother could pick up on. They made it through the next room without incident and proceeded to Kagami’s room. 

She holds her breath as she passes her mother’s door when there’s a sudden loud huff of air. Kagami jumped and Purrde hides behind her.  
Kagami wonders if she hit her head harder then she thought on that boat. There’s a black horse standing on the other side of the hall. Its eyes were an eerie red and its mane was like black mist that blew in an invisible wind. 

The horse huffs and gallops towards them, its mane reaching for Kagami. “Kagami watch out!” Purrde cries leaping out in front and turning into a ball of fire. The horse neighs and stands on its rear hooves. 

The fireball is consumed by the black mist and crushes it. Kagami leaps over to catch Purrde before she hit the ground. The kwami was asleep but in clear distress mumbling about something. “Purrde, Purrde, wake up.”

The horse snorts and stomps its hoof. Kagami abandons all methods to be quiet and runs towards it. She slid under the horse and poses low like a ninja. The hall was too narrow for the horse to turn around; she just had to find a weapon.

The horse’s form shifts into smoke and reforms with its head facing Kagami. Kagami yelps and runs towards her room with it galloping behind her. She slams her door behind her and grunts as the horse fights to get inside. Purrde whimpers again and Kagami puts her in a pocket close to her heart. Her heartbeat helped Purrde before.

Kagami scans her room filled with trophies awards and fencing equipment. Her eyes fall on a katana her uncle got for her birthday last year. She puts her back against the door and reaches for it. It was just out of reach. She’s about to rip off the scarf when the thudding stops. 

Kagami sees the smoke at her feet a second too late and all went black.

The horse stepped by Kagami and stopped by the window. It turned back to the girl to watch black sand seep out of her ear and stop in front of it. The horse kneeled at the sand and it shifted into a shadowy foal. The horse nuzzled the foal until a light makes the foal whine. The horse pushes the foal into the shadows and glares at the morning sun.

Nathaniel left for the park early that morning. His drawing pad under his arm and Duusu huddled next to his neck. He adjusts the cat ears headphones he had on his neck so she could sit comfortably and hidden. He spins a pencil in his hand and sits against a tree in the shade. 

“I’m glad you got a decent sleep last night” Duusu chirps with a cute yawn. “Talking about it with Alya must have really helped”.

“It’s usually hard for me to talk to reporters, but with Alya it’s really easy” Nathaniel admits opening a page filled with sketches of faces. His phone buzzes with a text and Duusu beats him to checking it.

“You’re going viral peachick” Duusu announces reading over some text. “I don’t think we’ve been talked about so much since we first appeared”.

“It won’t last long” Nathaniel finishes a sketch of Chat Noir sticking his tongue out “not after tonight”.

Duusu smiled looking over his shoulder at the sketches. There were the usual little bees and foxes down at the bottom. The Chat head with his tongue out, a Ladybug tossing her yo-yo up and the newest sketch Nathaniel was working on. It was a girl with closed eyes and a calm expression on her face. Nathaniel stuck his tongue out as he traced the butterfly mask on her face. He frowned once he was finished, clearly he needed more practice on the softer butterfly mask Chrysalid wore. This one still looked rather evil.

“Maybe we’ll get to patrol with Chrysalid sometime, then we can get a better drawing of her” Duusu says bringing him out of his thoughts. 

“I’d like to see her try to keep up with me” Nathaniel joked spinning his pencil on his left hand. He lost his grip and it smacked him in the eye. Duusu chuckled and flew over to pick it up for him.

Later that evening Juleka walks up to Rose’s house and knocks on the door. She waits a second then knocks again. Nooroo peeks his head out from her purse “are you sure she’s home?”

“She said she wanted to show me something” Juleka looks at the last text message between them. Rose hadn’t used a heart after her message, which didn’t happen unless something was wrong. Juleka pushed against the door to find not only was it unlocked but the frame was slightly off. Something had broken in. 

Nooroo and Juleka nod at each other “Nooroo wings flutter!”

Chrysalid opens the door sword at the ready. She puts her hand up to signal to her butterflies to stay outside. The inside of the Lavillant home was ransacked, books torn across the floor, furniture tossed about, and a strange black sand trailing up the stairs to Rose’s room. 

Chrysalid wasn’t dumb, this was a trap. But she had to see if Rose was okay. She waved in one butterfly from outside and used her power on it. “Find someone who is willing to help” she orders it and it takes out the window. She placed her hand on the railing and a gasp made her jump. She points the sword at the knocked over couch and holds her breath. Carefully she steps over and uses the tip to move a blanket away.

Under the blanket was Rose’s mother. Her eyes shut tightly and small gasps escaping her lips every now and then. Chrysalid shook her shoulder but the mother didn’t stir, the most she got was a mutter about not wanting anymore cake. A loud scream came from upstairs.

“Rose” Chrysalid cries and races up the stairs. She kicks down Rose’s bedroom door and huffs for breath. Her room is surprisingly normal compared to the rest of the house. Rose was on the ground in the middle of the room with her phone off to the side. Chrysalid falls to her knees to shake her girlfriend gently “Rose wake up.”

Rose whimpered and a tear ran down her cheek “Juleka I’m sorry, I never meant for this to happen”.

“Rose you’re having a nightmare, wake up” Chrysalid’s voice rose from a mumble to a whisper. Suddenly a horse neighed and Chrysalid covered Rose protectively.

The Nightmare stood in the closet like a jack ass. Chrysalid gasped as it stepped forward with a whinny. “What did you do to Rose” Chrysalid demands with her sword glowing with her fury. 

“The same thing we will do to you” a voice answers. Streams of black sand launch at her and Chrysalid swings to knock them away. She was getting better at using her powers, as she manages a back flip away from an attack and slices another upon landing. However there was still too many for one hero alone, it hits her from the back and traps her against the floor. 

The sand shifts away and makes a shadow silhouette of a tall woman. Chrysalid pales recognizing her features. The woman waved in several nightmares from the window. Chrysalid’s butterflies trapped in their bodies. One nightmare hands her the powered butterfly and the sound of a mosquito’s hum makes Chrysalid flinch. “No leave him alone!” Chrysalid cries trying to free himself.

The shadow turns to her “consider this punishment for interfering” it’s voice sent chills up her spine. Chrysalid is helpless to stop a mosquito with a red belly from stabbing her butterfly. Chrysalid begs for them to stop as her butterfly twitches and spasms. Red overtakes the purple and it flies under Rose’s bed. 

The shadow vanishes as a child’s screams are heard. Chrysalid gasps as the butterfly mask appears over her face and she got the child’s identity. “Stay calm Sand boy, don’t accept it!” Chrysalid cries only for a sound like wind to blow in her ear. 

“I am the boogeyman” the purple mask hummed and changed to red. It cracked once, twice than shattered. Chrysalid screams in pain and Rose’s room is encased in black sand. 

Nathaniel transformed before the sun had even set. Ladybug would be expecting him at the meeting spot to go over patrol. But he wasn’t going there tonight. He was going to check out the docks, where the knights of sin would meet. He jumped off a rooftop with enough speed to use his gliding ability for what it was worth. 

Chat Noir and Ladybug could have their happy reunion to themselves. He could act all surprised and happy for his return later. Ladybug certainly needed it; her temper and patience had taken a hit from Chat not being there to bounce off her.

“PAON” Ladybug shouts from a rooftop. Paon stumbles in the air and smacks into a wall. He collapses on his back and Ladybug stands above him with her hands on her hips. “Where have you been I’ve been waiting for half an hour” she snaps while his vision is still clearing. 

He groans and puts a hand on his head “sorry I guess I lost track of time.” He hides his scowl under his hand. He went through all this trouble to bring Chat Noir back and he doesn’t take it? This was the last time he played wingman.

Ladybug took a deep breath and flipped her yo-yo’s screen up “I wanted us to try something different tonight”. 

“That’s why you called me right?” Queen Bee lands beside Paon with a yawn. She threw her arm around him “you know you’re going to pay for making me come out on my day off right?” Her tone has just the right balance of playfulness. 

He leans towards her with the same amount of tease “and how might I do that?”

“Well…” she twirls some of his hair in her fingers “I heard there was a new place down the block with the best remix of a California roll.”

“I thought you said California rolls were perfection, how do you surpass perfection?” 

She giggled and they were about a nose apart “guess we’ll have to go to find out.”

“We most certainly will”

Ladybug clears her throat loudly; Bee and Paon break apart with sheepish smiles. “Let’s just get this over with” she snaps fighting an urge to roll her eyes. She should have expected to feel like a third wheel but man did she not like it. She takes a deep breath than starts swinging her yo-yo in the infinity sign. 

“Ladybug what you” Bee yelps as the yo-yo shoots around Queen Bee and Paon and forces them awkwardly together. 

After a painful five seconds Ladybug releases the string and pulls up two scans, one of Bee and one of Paon. The yellow and blue energies flooding through their veins indicating bonding had been done. Ladybug smirks at this knowing the next stage of the plan could be done. “Okay so you guys remember how Carapace had that shield and Rena went invisible?” she baits the hook.

Queen Bee instantly snags it “are we getting new powers too!” her eyes light up and she jumps up and down. “What do I get? What do I get?” she asks like a child at Christmas. “Do I get minions? Like little drones that I can order around to do the work for me?”

“No Bee, you don’t get minions” Ladybug deadpans and Bee sulks dramatically. Paon has a small smile and puts his hand on Bee’s back. Ladybug takes a deep breath and looks to Paon “we’re going to start with you Paon.”

The three sit down in a circle as Ladybug pulls out a paper with notes on it. “This is called Guardian giver, Paon I need you to concentrate on Bee.”

“That sounds easy” Paon smiles cheekily and Bee giggles. 

Ladybug sticks her chin out in a pout “not on her looks, on her emotions. Close your eyes and concentrate on her.”

“Alright” Paon shrugs and closes his eyes. He pictured her sitting there, her eyes bouncing with excitement and impatience. The cute way her leg bounced when she was restless and the shine of her silky hair. He could hear her trying to hide her giggles. Her laugh was so cute, light and cheerful like a bell. 

Her laughter made him warm, he sighed contently as it washed over him. He could see it as a glowing yellow sun. Bee was like that, a sun that was beautiful and passionate. She lit up any room she entered and defended her city like a Queen should. 

The sun was a ball of fire, fire brought warmth…and destruction.

The thought caught Paon off guard. He tried to go back to the warmth only to find it was now hot. 

She destroyed those she cared about, that are why they all left. It didn’t matter what she tried all she ever did was destroy. Her best friend wanted nothing to do with her. And as soon as her team got close she would destroy them too, burn them in her flames. 

She would be alone.

“I think he’s there” Ladybug’s voice sounds far away. “Okay Bee, hold out your Trompo. Paon open your eyes.” 

Paon opens his eyes and blinks a few times to clear his vision. Bee stared at him with her eyes puffy and two streams of tears running down her face. “Bee” he started feeling a lump in his throat “Bee you’re crying”. 

“What, no I’m not” Bee touches her face and it comes back dry. She looks over at Ladybug “I’m not crying I’m not.”

“That’s how this power works” Ladybug explains looking over at Paon. “Remember when you told me about your friend? When you had a fight and they started ignoring you” Bee nods not quite following. “Paon can see your real emotions behind it”. She touches Paon’s shoulder and he didn’t even flinch. “Okay Paon can you see me?” she waves her hand in front of him. His eyes appeared to be slightly glowing, which was not part of the spell.

“…No” Paon’s voice is shaking, is this what Bee was feeling? All he could see was Bee’s face surrounded by yellow flames. 

He could feel hands on his own, but when he looked there was nothing there. The hands took out his fan and faintly he could hear Ladybug instructing him to find something to soothe her. He looked over the fan to find it looked different from before. The long feathers had smaller fluffier ones in between like the ones that kept birds warm. He picked one free and it glow a faint blue. It was cool in his hands, like it was made from water. 

Ladybug watched intently as Paon took the feather and blew it towards Bee. Just like Shu had told her a child of moon could figure out kwami powers easily.  
But that didn’t mean he was evil, she reminded herself. Paon was just a quick learner; it didn’t mean he drank demon blood to cheat. She glanced over at Bee who flashed her nervous look. Ladybug offered a reassuring smile, this wouldn’t hurt, wouldn’t hurt her. 

Bee held her breath as the feather entered her Trumbo. A mask similar to the butterfly appeared over her and Paon’s face. It was smaller and more elegant then Hawk moths or Chrysalid’s. 

“Bee, can you” Paon suddenly starts to cough. The masks flicker out and he gags like he was choking on water. 

“Ladybug what’s happening?” Bee cries sliding over to Paon and grabbing him by the shoulders. Paon covers his mouth as the coughs get harsher “Ladybug!” 

Ladybug has her hands clamped tightly on her lap. This was what Shu told her, if an evil person tried this power this would happen. Paon falls to the ground still violently coughing and Bee has grabbed her Trompo to smash against the ground. After several unsuccessful tries Bee gives up and holds Paon in her arms. Bee’s pleas are muddled as Ladybug watched the scene. Her yo-yo rang at her and opened itself to show the scan of Paon. A red warning sign pointed to the scans throat and the scan had changed to the fetal position. Ladybug can’t stop staring at it; the corruption level was at zero. Tears pooled in Ladybug’s eyes as she looked back at Paon, her teammate. 

She couldn’t do it. She grabbed her yo-yo and placed the light over Paon’s mouth. Paon stopped coughing and lay limp on the ground. Ladybug doesn’t breathe until he does, slow shaky ones that pounded as loudly as her heart in her ears.

“What the hell just happened?” Bee snaps wiping away tears from her eyes.

Ladybug didn’t answer at first; she slides away from Paon as he opens his eyes. “I’m sorry” Ladybug whimpers hiding her face in her hands. 

“You should be” Paon hisses with more strength then one would be after nearly coughing to death. Ladybug looks up and gasps seeing his eyes were now glowing red. Paon pounces on Bee and bites her neck. Bee screams as the life is drained out of her then goes limp. He turns to her with black blood dripping from his mouth. “You hesitated” he reveals fangs in a spine chilling smile.

“Ladybug hey” Queen Bee shakes Ladybug to no avail. She groaned and whimpered in her sleep but showed no sign of waking up. 

“What happened to her?” Paon asks also trying to wake Ladybug.

“She just passed out after you woke up” Bee explains with her eyes wide. She looks over at Paon and sees a black mist. “Paon look out!” 

The mist moves to attack and Paon flips out his fans in time to knock it back. His fans cut through it like it was water. A horse appears from the mist and knocks him back. Queen Bee grabs her Trumbo right as the horse rears on its hind legs and the mist crashes on them like a wave.

“Paon” Bee cried out in the seemingly endless hallway she now found herself in. She noticed a light at the end of the tunnel and sped up towards it. She halts to a stop once she’s out. She was on the streets of Paris in the middle of the night. The lights came from two cars in front of her, a bus and a fancy black sports car. The sport car was on its back and was mangled beyond repair. Flames danced inside the seats and licked at the metal. 

Her breath hitched and she took a step back. She never wanted to be back here. 

A hand grabs the roof of the car and drags its body out. It was a woman with blonde hair and a white dress. Her large hat and sunglasses hid a good portion of her face but Bee knew who this was instantly. 

Audrey Bourgeois stood from her grave and stepped towards her “the only exceptional thing about you is your mother.” 

Paon spins like a top and blows away the mist. The horse neighs loudly in protest and circles around him.  
“So you resisted my spell, you must be a child of moon” a male voice makes Paon jump. He’s surrounded by more Nightmares, one carrying a rider on its back. It was a tall man with a hood hiding his face, the only feature visible was a pair of glowing yellow eyes. His fingers were twice the length of a normal human and something about him sent chills up Paon’s spine. 

“Does everyone know what that is but me?” Paon tries to joke but his voice shakes slightly. Paon glanced over at Bee now on the ground whimpering. He growled and faced the nightmares “you’re going to pay for that.”

“I have nothing against you Paon” Boogeyman suddenly warps into the shadows. Paon flinches as the shadow blob slips under his feet and reappears next to Bee. Paon growled and tried to pounce only to find his muscles were frozen. He was able to move his eyes to see his shadow had melted in with the Boogeyman’s. The Boogeyman put his hand just above Bee’s head and a dark mist slithers out of her ear. “they just need enough energy to open the portal” the mist swirls around his hand like a snake. 

“What…” Paon struggles to make his lips move. His head was starting to burn and his bones felt frozen. 

“Don’t worry about it puppet” Boogeyman slowly drops his hood. Underneath was Hawk moth’s face. “Your master will take care of it” Hawk moth purrs stepping towards Paon.

“No” Paon’s eyes spasm from trying to move “no you’re in jail, you can’t be here you can’t!” 

Hawk moth chuckled and tilted Paon’s chin to look him in the eye “it’s time we play a new game”. The city suddenly starts to fade and Paon finds himself in Gabriel’s office. Hawk moth was in his usual attire with his cane resting in one hand. 

“This isn’t real” Paon whimpers still unable to move anything but his eyes. He closes them and grunts trying to wake up. 

“Oh puppet, I’m sorry for keeping you in there so long” Hawk moth coos stroking the back of Paon’s hair. “You have such the imagination, I just loved hearing what you think would happen if you defeated me.” He chuckled watching Paon give up trying to wake and stare hopelessly at him. “We’re going to play one more game and then I will put you back into your trance.”

“NO!” Paon cried jerking his head back. “NO I don’t want to play a game; I don’t want to be in a trance. I’M NOT PUPPET, MY NAMES NOT PUPPET!” Paon hiccups and he hyperventilates.

Hawk moth clicked his tongue and put his hand on the side of Paon’s face. “Look at that I kept you in that game so long you forgot how much you loved being my puppet.” Paon whimpered and a tear ran down his face. Hawk moth raised his staff and the top began to glow “let me remind you.” 

 

Adrien frowned staring at a blank screen on his TV. It was supposed to be airing the news live in Paris. He had only fifteen minutes before he had to practice piano for an hour, he had to use his free time somehow.

“Maybe it’s another akuma attack; we should go check it out” Plagg calls from his bed. 

“You want to go out?” Adrien teased and propped his head up on his arm. “I’m starting to think you miss being Chat Noir more than I do.”

Plagg blows a raspberry “I just want you to call Gorilla for a ride, he keeps Camembert in the side door. And you know how much I crave my beloved Camembert”. He pretends to faint from thinking about it.

“Which is so weird” Adrien mutters and pulls out his phone. Gorilla wasn’t much of a talker or text person but whenever Adrian asked for a ride he always responded with an approximate time to wait. 

Plagg suddenly groans and holds his stomach. Adrien rolls his eyes “Plagg don’t be such a drama queen, Gorilla’s just taking a second to respond.”

“It’s not that” Plagg hisses flying over to Adrian’s face. “We have to go now” he orders so fiercely Adrien flinches.

“We can’t” Adrian argues “my father won’t allow it.”

“Since when has that stopped you” Plagg snaps with his little body shaking. 

“Since my father threatened to hurt Nathaniel, my friend” Adrien snaps back.

“Nathaniel already revealed his past to the world, your father can’t do anything to him” Plagg crosses his nubs. Adrien’s mouth formed a tight line and he looked away. “I know you read the Lady Blog post. Everyone has read it.” 

The silence lingers for a moment “what about his identity? He could reveal that” Adrian says softly.

“Super villain prisons protect hero’s secret identities; if he tries he’ll get shocked” Plagg answers with a grin. Boy he would love to see that. Adrien stares at him and Plagg shrugs “I looked it up one time”. 

Adrien’s phone buzzes with the akuma alert noise. Adrien’s hands rest at his sides “we can’t…we have to stay here.” He ignores Plagg’s shocked expression and flops on the bed; he had just five minutes before he had to play piano. 

Plagg’s eyes shimmered with tears “what did he do to you?” Adrien doesn’t answer and another stomach ache hits Plagg hard. “Well if you won’t go than I will” Plagg growls and flies towards the window. His body knocks over pencils, books and a pencil sharpener from the desk to the floor. Plagg phases through the window without another word.

The silence shook Adrien. Even the faint buzzing from the air conditioner wasn’t there to keep him company. He wraps his arms under his pillow and his hand brushes something. He pulls it out to find it was a photo. One of him and the team following a crazy akuma attack. His arm was around Ladybug and Rena giving her bunny ears. 

What was he thinking? Adrien shoves the picture into his pocket and runs to the door. No amount of pulling was going to open it. He gives up and tries the windows. Nothing, not even throwing his chair at it was enough to break them. He tries the bathroom next, a smirk on his face when he spots the gigantic air vent. 

He uses his phone to play a piano piece loudly so it would cover the sounds of him opening the vent with a coin. He tosses the grate on the ground and climbs inside. It was just wide enough for him to squeeze through. He spies daylight up above and hurries to it.

The outside vent gives after a serious of kicks and Adrien slides out. His outfit covered in dust and his hair messed up. No time to waste he runs across the roof and jumps to the nearest tree. Without Plagg his skin is torn and bruised but he manages to slow down enough to not die upon hitting the ground. 

He runs towards the garage and grins’ seeing it was both open and Nathalie’s motorcycle was in there. He had some experience with motorcycles as Chat, this shouldn’t be too difficult.  
He does remember to put on a helmet, have to at least try to look like a good role model. 

He catches up with Plagg easily. The kwami smirks and flies next to him.

“PLAGG CLAWS OUT” 

Chat Noir ditches the bike outside Paris and enters on foot. It was silent other than his footsteps on the rooftops. Down below cars were parked in the middle of the road like the owners just vanished. Chat frowned and cupped his hands over his mouth like a megaphone “HELLO IS ANYONE.”

He’s suddenly grabbed from behind and a hand shoves over his mouth “keep quiet” Gorm whispers. He pulls Chat behind a giant air conditioner and peeks over to make sure they haven’t been seen. 

Gorm lets him go and Chat turns to face him “what’s going on here? Where’s Ladybug?” 

There’s a whinny from not far away. “Not safe here” Gorm whispers “come with me” Chat sighs but follows Gorm through a complicated system of buildings and trees. 

They arrive at a fancy red mansion that Chat recalled belonging to Kagami’s family. Gorm and Chat sneak through a window and Chat’s greeted with the grand fencing gym in the home being used as a safe house. There were people wrapped in blankets whimpering and groaning from nightmares. And a few people awake trying their best to comfort them. Rena and Carapace are among the awake. Rena was placing a warm cloth on Avvina’s head. Carapace was holding Chris Lahiffe in his arms as the kid cried out for his mom in his sleep. 

Gorm puts a hand on Chat’s back “hey guys look who I found” he announces at normal volume.

“Chat” Rena throws her arms around him. She pulls back and slaps him hard “WHERE THE FOX HAVE YOU BEEN?” 

Chat holds a sore cheek and Carapace grabs Rena’s hand before she can strike again. “I guess I deserved that” Chat mutters “so what happened?”

Gorm closes the window and pulls down the blinds “Paris got attacked by these nightmare creatures, as you can see there are not a lot of us left.” 

“They were harvesting some kind of energy from them, so we moved them here to try and stall them” Carapace adds rubbing circles on Chris’s back. It was going to be a long time before he forgot coming down the stairs to his family collapsed around the living room with the nightmares. He couldn’t save his older brothers or his mom before the nightmares scooped them up. 

“Avvina took the attack meant for me” Rena holds Avvina’s hand as she whimpers about not wanting to be a meat suit. “She was able to summon her all mine before she fall asleep but none of us know what to do with it.” She hands Chat a white stone with a gorgeous shine to it.

“It’s a moon stone” Chat muttered running his thumb over it. “Do you guys know where Ladybug is?” 

“My guess is wherever the Boogeyman is hiding” Gorm says sitting on an over turned target. Chat looks at him funny “for real the akuma or whatever is the Boogeyman.”

Chat rubs his chin and pockets the moon stone “I think I have a good idea where he’d be hiding, who wants to come with me?” 

“I’ll come” Rena says standing up “that way if anything happens, Gorm or I can send a signal”. Avvina’s miraculous gives a beeping warning “just let me put Avvie here somewhere so her identity will be safe”.

The boys watch as Rena scoops her up and leaves to find a more private room. Gorm clears his throat “just so you know the knights and your team are cool now.”

“I had a suspicion; Rena likes to give nicknames to her friends” Chat smirks with his hands on his hips.

“I got fish breath” Gorm blurts sinking into his knees. 

Chat snorts and Carapace lightly chuckles “don’t take it to heart; I was stuck with slowpoke for a while.”

Later team mischief as Ladybug sometimes called it make their way through an empty Paris. They stop on the building Chat suspected. “Mattress factory, I don’t follow” Rena admits as they hide behind the giant neon sign. 

“The Boogeyman loves to hide under the bed, why not have his lair surrounded by them” Chat opens a ceiling window and the two stare in. Sure enough there’s dozens of people inside with some kind of glowing purple energy draining from their heads to the middle of the store. With their night vison they’re also able to see a few nightmares trotting about. 

“Not bad CN” Rena compliments giving his back a good wack. Chat almost falls in while Rena scans the area over “Ladybug and the others must be here somewhere, come on.”

Nightmare’s turn out to have terrible eyesight. Rena and Chat manage to slip past them without being seen. The fear the victims gave off covered their own scents. They have to creep over the mattresses at one point to avoid being heard. Chat’s heart sunk further as he heard each whimper and mumble from the victims.

“I’m sorry I messed up, please don’t” Sabrina whimpers huddled in a ball. 

“Leave my family alone, take me just stop” Tom cries thrashing slightly in his sleep. He had strands of black sand holding him in place.

“Kitty” a weak plea makes Chat freeze. He grabs Rena’s tail and points to his cat ears. “Kitty, come back” Ladybug cries from the darkness. 

His lady was calling for him. She was scared, alone and crying for him. Chat pushed down tears from his eyes and they crawled towards the sound. 

Ladybug ran down the hallway at the school. Chat ducked into the change rooms and she followed suit. Why was he running? Didn’t he see what Paon did? They had to stop him before he hurt anyone else. He had already picked off the team one by one. They had to stay together or…  
Ladybug comes to a full halt upon seeing Paon’s matted feathers over top of Chat. Paon looked up at her with the same bloodthirsty grin. Chat’s body in his arms with teeth marks in his neck “too late bugaboo.” 

“You monster, get away from him” Ladybug cries with tears running down her face.

Rena put a hand on Ladybug’s cheek to wipe away the tears both fresh and dry “her nightmare is losing you.” 

Chat grabs Ladybug’s hand and holds it next to his chest “I’m so sorry Ladybug, I never should have left.”

Rena steps away and finds their other teammates in nearby beds. “We can only take two at a time, you take Ladybug and I’ll…”

“The only thing you’ll be doing” Boogeyman interrupts from behind them “is going to bed like good little children.”

“Not happening” Rena swings her flute around her body and jabs it at Boogeyman “I’ve already drank three expresso’s and eight latte’s, I’m not going to bed for weeks!”

“How are you alive?” Chat blurts getting into his battle position.

Rena shrugs “I don’t know.” 

“Caffeine won’t save you” Boogeyman summons a wave of sand upon them. Rena and Chat spin their weapons fast enough to blow it back. A nightmare charges Rena and she uses the mattresses to bounce away from its grasp. Chat does the same careful not to land on victims. 

Rena’s tail is almost nabbed by the nightmare and Rena grabs a mattress to smack it away. The horse disappears under it and reappears under a different bed. Chat pounces on it from behind with his own mattress and sandwiches the horse in between two mattresses. The horse neighs and bumps the top mattress but can’t get out. 

“We’ll never be able to take them all down” Rena whispers as they’re backed up against a wall by dozens of nightmares. 

Chat bumps against a wall and spots a light switch. He smirks “I know what always scared away nightmares as a kid. LIGHTS ON!” he flicks the switch and the store lit up in harsh fluorescent lights.

The nightmares scream and race to whatever shadows they could find. Boogeyman growls watching them cower under tables or under display beds. “You think false sunshine will scare me” he snaps and pulls out his weapon from his cloak. An akuma infected pillow.

Rena plays a few notes on her flute and illusions of Chat and her surround Boogeyman. “Alright Boogeyman, let’s boogie” Chat poses like his transformation pose.

Boogeyman sighs and Rena groans “even for you that was bad.”

“Hey I’m a little out of practice” Chat replies with a shrug. The illusions and real hero’s charge Boogeyman from all angles. Boogeyman spins his pillow and attacks them. The illusions cover the battlefield with orange dust.

The real Rena goes low while an illusion goes high. Boogeyman attacks the illusion and Rena sweeps his legs out. Chat grabs the pillow from his grasp and slides away with it in his left arm. 

Boogeyman looks surprised then his expression darkens to a smirk “and just what are you going to do with that?” he asks putting his hands behind his back “release the akuma when both your cleaners are out of commission?”

Rena and Chat pause and looked over at both Ladybug and Paon still suffering in their nightmares. Boogeyman laughs and tosses an energy ball of fear towards the ceiling. It explodes and destroys the lights keeping the Nightmares away. 

Chat and Rena scream as they’re knocked over by dozens of charging horses. Rena hits the floor and starts whimpering like all the other nightmare victims. Boogeyman chuckles and approaches Chat’s body still loosely holding onto his pillow. 

He grabs it and Chat’s eyes spring open. Chat smacks Boogeyman into a pile of mattresses that clatter all over the place. “How did?” Boogeyman splutters getting to his feet eyes wide as saucers.

Chat gets to his feet with a cocky smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “You can’t push me into a nightmare, I’m already living one.” A Nightmare charges him and Chat simply walks through it. 

“I left my team” another nightmare charges and Chat destroys it without raising a finger. “And they got hurt” Chat’s eyes flash with each destroyed Nightmare. “My Lady cried for me and I wasn’t there!” 

The remaining nightmares back up and Boogeyman is frozen. Chat stops over Ladybug’s body and picks up her yo-yo. “There is nothing worse than that” Chat rips open the pillow with his claws and the red butterfly takes to the air.

Chat had seen Ladybug do this enough times he was able to capture the butterfly with ease. Complete with her lines “time to de-evilize”. 

“Bye, bye butterfly” Chat’s voice cracks as the white butterfly stumbles out of the yo-yo and takes to the heavens. 

Boogeyman falls to his knees and the magic falls off him. He’s left as a small boy with blue hair and black eyes. His surprise shifts to fear “CHAT LOOK OUT!” 

Chat can’t move before the original Nightmare attacks from behind and knocks him across the room. The yo-yo and the moon stone fall out and clatter in front of him. The nightmare neighs and the other nightmares gather behind Chat. They couldn’t make him fall asleep but they could still knock him out. 

Chat lifts his head and stares at the moonstone and yo-yo. A bit of moonlight lit them up in the otherwise black room. Chat smirks and picks up the yo-yo “got it.”

The nightmares charge and Chat pounces away in time. Chat dodges their attacks and climbs his way up to the roof of the building. He flicks his claw out and touches the ceiling “Cataclysm!”

The roof cracks and rots away leaving the building exposed to the full moon. The smaller Nightmares squeal and race for the shadows again. But the big mama Nightmare stands her ground with an angry huff. Chat lands a few feet away twirling the yo-yo in his hand, alright now what?

Paon grunts and shifts in his sleep, his wrist turning to expose the bracelet to the moon. The willow tree glows faintly and spreads to the rest of the stone. A tear slides down Paon’s face “no please no, not Bee.”

Hawk moth sighs and wraps his arm around Paon. Paon was dressed in his dark Paon outfit; blue had been replaced with purple and green with black. He also had a butterfly mask on his face. “I need all the miraculous’s puppet, you will take it and make the bee bleed.”

Paon whimpers as strings from his hands and feet force him towards Queen Bee waiting for him for patrol. Her back was towards him. His fans flip out ready to attack. “Get away Bee, please” Paon cries loud enough he says it in the real world.

In Bee’s nightmare her mother had changed into a monstrous form. Her skin was lava and her eyes were flames. Her hat and clothes burned black and her mouth hung open unnaturally. “IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN YOU” it shrieks closing in on the cowering Bee.

Bee whimpers and hides her face in her hands. “I’m sorry mom I…”

“Bee” Paon’s voice is a whisper against her ear. He sounded like he was in pain. The nightmare mom keeps talking but Bee is no longer listening. Paon cared so much about her, and she about him. He was part of her present and future. Her fingers fall and her eyes linger on her mom. Her mom was the past.

Bee stands up and her wings flare out hard enough a wind blows the flames. “You know what mom? I spent my entire life looking up to you, trying to be more like you, even after the accident I do everything to try and win your approval. But I’ll never get that will I?” The blue mask warms on her face, Paon’s emotions mixing with her own. He wanted her to fight. She jabs a finger at Audrey “and you know what? I don’t need it. I don’t need you to tell me I’m exceptional BECAUSE I KNOW I AM!”

A blue light appears behind her and turns into a swarm of little bee insects. Bee gives a war cry and they blast through Audrey. The flames are extinguished the first time making her look like ash; the second time leaves her as a bunch of dust. 

Bee picks up the hat with a sad smile “you weren’t a queen mother, not like I will be.” She rips the hat in two.

Bee gasps and her eyes shoot open. She’s in a building without a roof and covered in mattresses and people whimpering in their sleep. She rubs her head and her ears catch Paon softly whimpering her name. 

“Paon” Bee flies over to him and puts her hands on his face “Paon I’m here, I beat my nightmare.” He whimpers and her smile wobbles. She puts her forehead on his “I couldn’t have done it without you, thank you.” Her Trompo flashes and the feather gently falls out. Paon’s eyes whip open and he turns to cough towards the floor. 

“Bee…you saved me” Paon weakly says and Bee wraps her arms around him. He returns it tightly “I almost hurt you.”

“I’d kick your butt before you’d have the chance” Bee moves her head and kisses his cheek. Paon’s mouth drops and she smirks at him.

“HEY GUYS YOU’RE AWAKE” Chat yells rolling away from the Nightmare who had now absorbed all the others to become massive. “LITTLE HELP PLEASE” he cries almost getting stomped on.

“Chat’s back” Paon cries and Bee can’t control her excited squeals.

“Let’s send this horse back to the stables” Bee swings her scepter into her hands. 

“You always know just what to say” Paon chirps and closed his eyes. He reopens them with the peacock vision on. The horse’s features fade other than a spot on its back “it’s a corrupt, hold it still.”

Bee shoots above the horse “no problem, HONEY TRAP” 

The Nightmare wails as it’s covered in the sticky substance that hardens in seconds. Chat climbs up the hardened honey and cuts open the corrupt hole. Paon dives in and Chat uses the yo-yo light to stop the black hole from devouring everything. 

Paon finds the trapped soul easily; to his surprise the soul is an actual horse. Once he wakes it the horse neighs and bucks her back legs. “It’s okay, you’re going to be okay” Paon holds his hands out gently. The horse shakes her neck but lets him pet her. Paon holds out the arrow and she absorbs into it changing it to a golden brown. 

Gorm watches the night sky and catches the blue arrow shooting up like blue lightning. It creates a sound wave in the air and feathers begin to fall from the sky. “They did it” he cries to Carapace and the others. Quickly then begin carrying out everyone who had been effected out so a feather could fall on them. 

A feather sinks into Ladybug’s forehead and her eyes flutter open. A hand holding her yo-yo is in front of her “would you do the honours my lady?”

“CHAT” Ladybug pounces up and wraps her arms around him. Both an ugly sob and a delightful laugh escape her throat “you’re back, you’re really back.”

“Back in black” Chat chuckles and returns the hug.

Ladybug opens her eyes to see a bunch of people were staring at him. Rena and Bee shared looks of “that’s my ship” Chrysalid had a small smile with her injured butterfly safe in her hands. And Paon…Paon’s features looked to be glowing for half a second before he looks as he always did. With some hesitation Ladybug drops the hug and they approach them. “Paon I’m so sorry, the guardian giver is a dangerous power, I shouldn’t have started with it.”

“It’s alright, I think I got the hang of it” Paon wraps his arm around Bee and she giggles.

Their miraculous give off their warning beeps. Ladybug sighs and takes her yo-yo from Chat “I’ll see you tomorrow for patrol?” she asks hopefully.

He takes her hand and kisses it “not even rampaging nightmares could keep me away.” 

He jumps away and Rena sighs as she captures the relaxed smile on Ladybug’s face. She throws her yo-yo up to summon her miraculous cure.

Gorm has Kagami in his arms waiting for the next feather to hit her. One absorbs into her head and another into her chest. She must have been really hurting. She groans and her eyes flutter open, confusion taking her features at Gorm being there.

“Are you alright, you were having quite the nightmare” Gorm helps her set her feet down. His hands stay intertwined with hers. 

“I was being crushed by all my responsibility, literally” Kagami says softly. “It started off easy but it just kept getting heavier and heavier.” 

“That sounds awful” Gorm frowns trying to think of something. “Maybe you need someone to help you shoulder that responsibility; do you know anyone that can help?” 

Kagami is so shaken from the nightmare she releases a smile “the only people I know are childish and silly, I couldn’t do that to them.”

“Come on if they care about you I’m sure they will help” Gorm matches her smile. “I mean look at me, I made up training for the knights to try and help Raion.”

“Really” Kagami tilts her head “like what?” 

“Like playing tag to increase speed and stamina” Gorm starts grinning at the thought “or throwing hot dogs at Raion and seeing if she can cook them before they hit the ground. He starts giggling halfway through his idea and Kagami joins in.

“You made up games” Kagami can’t stop giggling “for the knights of sin.”

“Well yeah why can’t we have fun?” Gorm pretends to be offended. “I’m pretty sure I’m the oldest and I know all work and no play isn’t good for anyone” he pauses as they get control of their laughter. “I wanted to show Raion but I don’t think she’ll accept it. I know she’s the leader but we’re a team, we help each other.”

Kagami smiles like balloons were attached to the sides of her mouth. She felt lighter; like she could fly off if his hand wasn’t grounding her….oh crap they were still holding hands! Kagami quickly drops his hand with an embarrassed giggle and tucks some hair behind her ear. “Maybe you should tell her, she might like your idea.”

It’s his turn to act embarrassed. He scratches the back of his neck with one hand while the other hides behind his back “you think so?” 

Kagami clears her throat and nods formally. Gorm frowns at the sound suddenly going quiet. Her heart song vanished like Raion’s under a pile of walls. With Raion, if he wanted to truly hear her heart song he would have to get by those walls. Not by force by blasting them down, but by letting her open the door. 

He would start by easing her load. “Thanks Kagami, keep cool alright?” he winks and uses his guitar to fly away with the ladybugs fixing the city. 

Kagami covers her cheeks with her hands as they got warm. He knew her name, how did he know her name?

Purrde sticks her head out with a cheeky smirk “you two would make fantastic cubs together”.

A few people leaving the estate watch as the queen of ice screams and falls on her back. She glares at them staring “I thought I saw a rat”. The people take the excuse and continue onward.

Later that night the streets are filled with laughter. Licorne and Jade run across the rooftops taunting the others behind them. Jade slips and almost falls but Lune catches him before he plummets. Raion and Gorm chase them with Raion riding Gorm’s guitar while he ran beside her. 

Chat and Ladybug watch them sitting next to each other. “You know I almost miss when it was just the two of us” Chat says as the knights disappear into the night.  
Ladybug sighs and scoots closer to him “no matter how many super heroes’ show up in Paris we’ll always be Ladybug and Chat Noir, the first to defend Paris together.” 

 

Mosquito smiles softly looking at a glowing round object in her hands. The other was a few feet away placing a thick black liquid into a strange rock formation. A few mosquitoes fly around him and he angrily slaps them away “keep you bugs off my energy.”

“It’s so much work for so little gain” Mosquito chuckles watching him try to hit them. “Don’t fret over them so much, we’ll be out of here soon enough.” She turns back to her orb and sighs happily “Nathaniel Kurtzberg”. Like a crystal ball it showed Nathaniel joining some friends at the movies. 

“I long to meet you at last my nephew”


	17. Lesbian vampires

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chloe relapse's badly. She and Sabrina have a fight that ends with Lune becoming corrupted and terrorizing Paris with an army of vampires.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Eight days before my trip and I managed to produce another chapter. Consider this a gift for how long it will be before the next chapter.   
> By the way I intended to write a happy and cute chapter but that is not what I made. This is bitter and cold with a tinge of lemon sweet at the end.

Chapter 17 Lesbian vampires  
Adrien chewed his lip with his hands in his lap. His father hadn’t said a thing since he entered. His gaze focused on the TV in the corner of the room. It was on a more gossipy news channel, only because this one had better footage of Chat Noir’s grand return. It was proof of him disobeying his father. 

“Adrian, stop biting your lip. You’re going to make it bleed”

Adrien jumped and chomped his lip hard enough he tasted crimson. His father sighed and rubbed away the start of a headache. Adrien wiped his lip harshly with his hand “I’m sorry father I…”

“Spare me Adrien, let’s just cut to the chase” his father’s cold voice cut him off. Gabriel put his elbows on the table with his fingers laced together. “Perhaps it was too much to ask of you to remove yourself from your hobbies entirely. Us Agreste’s have strong ties to our ladies” he looks over at the TV which was displaying Chat Noir and Ladybug sitting together on a roof. 

Adrien gulped not liking the way Gabriel looked at Ladybug. Gabriel would have grabbed Ladybug’s miraculous and tossed her off the Eiffel tower without a second thought. 

“Adrien, do you trust me?”

Adrien froze and nodded “of course I do father”.

Gabriel hid his smirk in his hands “then I release you from previous orders. You are free to become him when you must.”

Adrien’s eyes lit up “you mean it?”

Gabriel sighed and leaned back in his chair. “Yes, all I ask is you please restrain yourself from jumping into harm’s way at every opportunity.” Gabriel opened his eyes wide as a pitiful attempt to look sympathetic. “I can’t lose anyone else”.

Adrien nodded eagerly “yes, yes I will, I mean I won’t” he jumps up and hugs his father. “Thank you, thank you so much.”

Gabriel returns the hug, his gigantic arms easily wrapping around Adrian “You’re welcome Adrien”. 

 

“Jade are you sure it’s this way?” Raion asks using her sword as a torch in the dark. The smell of the sewers was one of the places she regretted having super senses. Still she has to look good for her image and her teammates. So she walked ahead of the group in the knee deep water.

Jade pats the head of the gigantic fly he sat on “Christy here says the Birther is just up ahead”. The fly makes a buzzing sound “don’t worry Christy I won’t ask you to fight if you don’t want to” Jade coos hugging the giant fly’s head.

“Why is it called a Birther?” Licorne asks using the tip of her horn like a flashlight. “Shouldn’t it be called a mother or like a demon momma?” she pulls a face for Lune and the bat giggles softly. 

“These things are way too nasty to be called mother” Gorm pipes in holding his guitar out like it could shoot bullets. “They’re a real ugly creature that spits out venom and nasty smoke. They suck the energy out of anything they can find and turn it into little demons”.

“Maybe we should call it a Bourgeois” Lune joked under her breath. 

Licorne burst out laughing “a Bourgeois, that’s just gold” Raion slams her hand over Licorne’s mouth. Raion points her sword into the darkness and everyone hears a loud raspy gasp of air.

Lune covered her mouth with her hand, the smell was god awful. The creature looked like a pile of sewage and molasses had combined into one filthy being. It had a narrow part at the top where the breathing was coming from like a volcano. It coughed and black goo bubbled from the mouth. The Birther moved its mouth to the wall and spat out a goo demon. A weak but annoying demon the knights were used to dealing with. 

“Put some sunglasses on that and it’s a perfect match” Jade whispers causing everyone but Raion to giggle. 

Raion readies her sword “Gorm, ice its mouth so it can’t spit. Everyone else, attack it’s gut until its heart is exposed. Lune is your arrow ready?” 

“Yes Raion” Lune holds up her bow which was glowing softly. 

“Then let’s go” Raion charges and slashes the side of the Birther. It roars in pain and moves its mouth towards her. Gorm pounces in and ices the top of the Birthers mouth.   
Licorne stabs it from the side and Jade jumps off his fly to punch it with both his fists and his scarves. 

Lune stays behind pointing her arrow at the belly, waiting for the moment to fire. She winces as Raion digs her sword deep into the Birther’s side. The creature’s muffled screams striking her in the core. 

Pressure builds in the belly of the beast as it twitches and spasms away from the knight’s attacks. Despite the pain it was clever, it threw its mouth down where the fire pain was coming from and Raion accidentally frees it from the ice. 

Licorne slashed its belly and a green heart appeared “Lune, fire before it heals!” 

The Birther roars and spits foul green venom at Raion. Gorm flies over in time and creates a shield of ice before it could hit. The venom quickly burns through the ice and they get away seconds before it collapses “HURRY LUNE!” Gorm shouts.

Lune bites her lip and closes her eyes. Her fingers let go of the string and the arrow fires into the Birther’s heart. It gives one last horrible scream and collapses into sewage. Almost all the knights get away before it got on them. 

Jade popped his head out of the sewage with his arms above his head. “YAY we won” he cheers and Christy fly comes over to start cleaning the gunk off his head. 

Lune’s lip trembled and Licorne nudged her gently “are you okay Lune?”

Lune quickly nodded “yeah I just want to get away from this smell”.

Raion held up her sword and it burned off demon blood with a hiss “I do as well, knights move out”.

Later Lune flies into her room and loses the costume as to not stink up the place. Wixxin coughs and falls into her hands. “I should not have tried out the senses tonight, were you in the sewers?” Wixxin asks lightheartedly. Sabrina doesn’t reply with her eyes cast to the floor. “Sugar what’s wrong?” Wixxin flies up and touches her wielders cheek.

“The demon we fought tonight” Sabrina starts in a whisper “it was defending itself, it wasn’t hurting anyone” Sabrina felt her face go hot and she rapidly blinked tears away. “It was in pain and I killed it” Wixxin wipes away her tears with a gentle smile.

“Bless your kind heart, I know how that must feel” Wixxin’s stomach growled but she ignored it. “Let me ease your worries a little by saying the demons don’t die when you defeat them. Without something to grow back from the demon has to go back to their world.”

“So we’re just sending them home?” Sabrina sits down on her bed and an apple bumps into her hip. 

“Exactly, it’s impossible to kill a demon unless you’re in its home dimension” Wixxin takes the apple and hangs upside down from a bookshelf. 

Meanwhile in doom and gloom-vile the two villains empty rock is now squirming with tiny goo demons. The demon man slaps a mosquito on his arm “must you keep feeding from me? There’s plenty of young blood now”.

“They don’t like that blood” Mosquito replies poking a goo demon with her sword. The ground suddenly starts to shake and the Birther appears spewing venom everywhere. Mosquito and the man scream and do a dance of sorts to avoid the venom “I HATE THESE THINGS” Mosquito shouts above the chaos. 

“Today’s the day Pollen, today Sabrina will pay” Chloe sings throwing open her closet doors. She is in her cute PJ’s that were white with a queen’s crown on the chest. The doors close behind her and Pollen rubs at her eye. 

Had her skin have the ability to wrinkle worry lines would cover her face. She looks over at one nub and dusts off something like yellow glitter. From the moment she met Chloe she knew she had a lot of work to do. For a while she thought she was making good progress, but now she had physical proof she was not. Not the dust, the dust meant love and friendship flowed equally through both of them. No it was Queen’s Bee’s strength that had suffered. No longer did it just gain strength from those who loved Queen Bee. It gained it from those from Chloe as well.

Normally by the time this happened her chosen were well liked in their communities. Their strength doubled by the added love from their people. But not Chloe, Chloe was so disliked by her peers that the love canceled itself out leaving Queen Bee weaker than ever. 

Pollen had failed as a royal adviser. And Queen Bee pays the price.

Chloe threw open the closet doors making Pollen jump and fall onto a pillow down below. “We’ll show Sabrina just what she walked out on” Chloe declares with her arms in the air. She wore her latest expensive outfit her Daddy bought her. It was Designer white jean shorts that had little gemstones on the back pockets. She wore a black off the shoulder top with a shawl decorated with so many gems it must have weighed ten pounds. The largest diamond necklace Pollen had ever seen, with matching earrings. And some high heeled boots that went up to her knees. The outfit screamed both “rich girl” and “desperate for attention”. 

Pollen tries her most supportive smile “very nice but um…maybe this is a bit much”.

Chloe rolls her eyes “oh what do you know about fashion Pollen” she picks up her purse for the day. It was pink with silk on the inside “get in my designer purse and watch as Sabrina comes crawling back to me.”

Sabrina sighed into her hands about fifteen minutes into class. Chloe had shown up like a disco ball and had been loudly announcing how much they cost and that she might have to clear out her wardrobe soon. When they were friends that meant Sabrina could get her hands on some hand me downs. Sabrina tightened her grip on her tiny purple purse and gritted her teeth. 

A small paw touches her hand almost making her jump. Wixxin offers her a kind smile before disappearing back into the purse. 

“Hey” Lila slumps against her seat “got any sunglasses? I can’t see over the disco queen."

Sabrina adjusts her glasses “mine are transitions; you can read over my notes if you’d like."

“Thanks” Lila opened a bottle from her bag and Sabrina got a whiff of some kind of coffee drink. “I’m too tired to deal with math right now, wake me up when it’s over”. Lila puts her arms on the table and rests her head on them. 

Sabrina almost offered to write Lila’s notes for her. That was a sure way to secure their budding friendship. But that was what the old Sabrina did, and friendship was a two way street. “I’m not going to do the work for you” Sabrina announces using Wixxin’s presence to give her confidence. Lila lazily looks over at her with a big pout on her lips. “But if you’d like I can help you study after school” Sabrina shyly offers feeling her face heat up. Come on girl now’s not the time to be shy.

Lila rolled her head back up and smiled. The blush on Sabrina’s face increases and she quickly turns away. “Sure, but only if we get pizza. I know a good place.” Lila’s stomach growls loudly at the thought of her pizza. 

“Did you remember to have breakfast today?” Sabrina can’t help but ask.

Lila holds up the bottle “I got this."

Sabrina’s mother hen instincts took over, no one was missing a proper breakfast on her watch. She digs in her book bag and slides over a granola bar “it’s not much but it should tide you over until lunch."   
Chloe huffs looking over at the girls ignoring her in favor of a granola bar. It was unacceptable. Her friendship with Sabrina was built upon riches, clothes and diamonds. What was their friendship built upon? Granola bars and staring? Absolutely ridiculous, Chloe is so upset she takes it out on Marinette who was struggling to stay awake.

“Maybe if the ditz didn’t dream about her crush all night maybe she’d be more awake” Chloe whispers just loud enough for Marinette to hear. Her voice had just the right level of venom to be a good slap to the face. Marinette jerks up and sends her a tired glare. Chloe sneers and turns back to her own work. Or rather her blank piece of paper, she hadn’t a clue what to write. And even if she did there was no way she could write it fast enough before Mendeliev wiped the board clean. 

Once class breaks for lunch Chloe pretends to play on her phone waiting for Sabrina to talk with her. To her horror Sabrina walks by chatting with Lila like her best friend wasn’t sitting right there. Chloe snaps and slams her hands onto the desk as loudly as she can. 

“SABRINA RAINCOMPLIX” 

Sabrina and Lila freeze in place. The rest of the class also paused wanting to see this go down. Chloe stands from her desk and stomps towards Sabrina. Sabrina gulps feeling the heat radiating off Chloe like she really was a dragon Wixxin compared her to. 

“You have some nerve” Chloe snaps jamming a finger in Sabrina’s shoulder. “I am your best friend Sabrina, how dare you dump me for this, this piece of lying trash!”

“Hey” Lila cries and Chloe turns her verbal assault to her.

“Oh what do you care, you know the only reason Sabrina even talks to you is because you’re such a bad liar it’s entertaining. That’s all you are Lila, useless entertainment!”

“Leave her alone Chloe” Sabrina straightens her back and steps in front of Lila. She used her body as a shield of sorts. Chloe’s eyes flash with out of control fury. 

“Oh finally have a back bone do you?” she taunted with a fake smile “you think you’re better off without me don’t you? Well I’ll let you know that without me you are nothing, no one will care about you without me!”

“I’d rather be nothing than hated for being your minion” Sabrina kept her voice so dangerously calm it surprised her. “I’m not your friend anymore Chloe and I know I made the right decision” Chloe’s eyes grew wide and Sabrina turned away. She grabbed Lila’s hand “come on Lila let’s go” Sabrina orders looking down so she can’t see the class staring at her.

Pollen is helpless to stop Chloe from the bag she left on the desk. “You think you can just humiliate me and walk away? I don’t think so” Chloe cups her hands like a megaphone. 

“SABRINA IS A LESBIAN!” 

Sabrina freezes and Lila yanks her hand away like it was on fire. Slowly Sabrina turns to face Chloe’s evil expression. The fake delight in her eyes and the shaky smile “Oh did I spill our sister secret?” Chloe asks innocently. 

Her response is hard, loud slap to the face. Sabrina’s eyes wobbled with tears as her hand came to a rest at her side. Sabrina opens her mouth to say something but no words come out. She runs to the girl’s bathroom and locks herself in a stall. 

Chloe pulls her hand away for bright red skin to greet the world. Her cheeks already swelled up from a bruise.

“That was cold Chloe, even for you” of course Marinette is the one to say that. It would be perfect little Marinette with all the wonderful loyal friends and the loving family to open her trap first. Than the rest of the class minus Adrien followed suit like a choir spouting their opinion. Chloe covers her ears and her body shakes with frustration. 

“JUST LEAVE ME ALONE” She aggressively stomps towards the class and they have the intelligence to back away. “LEAVE JUST GO” Chloe slams the door shut and presses a button to cover the windows with curtains. 

Chloe leans against the door and lets it all out. She throws her head into her diamond shawl and cries. 

Sabrina isn’t much better, the bathroom emptied of her worried female classmates and she was left alone in the dark. All but one of the lights had burnt out leaving the room in harsh shadow. Wixxin flew out of her bag and glowed gently in the room. Her presence was a comfort without offering any hollow words.

“I can’t believe she told everyone, if mom finds out” Sabrina took her glasses off to get better access to her eyes. Putting pressure on them helped relive the burning. “What am I going to do Wixxin?”

“That’s up to you sugar” Wixxin replied snatching some tissue paper and using it to dry Sabrina’s tears. “Why don’t we fly around the river tonight? I hear the moon will be almost full” Wixxin adds with her sweetest smile. 

Sabrina stands up with Wixxin cupped in her hands. Her eyes are red and puffy but she tries to smile anyway. “Sounds like fun…” she whimpers and her hand suddenly jolts. She holds Wixxin in her left hand and slowly turns over the right. 

A mosquito almost the size of her hand looks up from the black mark it made and flies away. Sabrina whimpers watching her veins turn black and slowly crawl up her arm. “Wixxin, Wixxin help me I’m scared!” she cries.

Wixxin looks to the arm and to Sabrina’s face with clear panic. Could she suck out the poison? No it was too much and too deep. She’d never get it out in time. All she could do was comfort, so comfort was what she did.

“You’ll be okay sugar, I know this is scary but you have people who will help you. Your team will make be there when this is all over. Ladybug will save you”.

Even after the reveal that Ennzo was alive, Wixxin was still frightened of Ladybug. So to hear her say that meant worlds to Sabrina. The poison reaches Sabrina’s neck “will you be with me?” she whimpers.

“I always will be” Wixxin presses her forehead against Sabrina’s as the poison reaches her head. Wixxin’s glow flickers out and the room plunges into darkness. 

Lila stands outside the bathroom biting her lip, she’s about to draw blood when Alya suddenly leans on her shoulder. “Well girl are you going to go in there or what?” 

Tutti sticks his head out from her hair “I’ve been trying to convince her for five minutes, I think she’s scared.”

“I’m not scared” Lila snaps under her breath to not draw attention to them. “It’s just that she’s a …she’s a” Lila makes a few gestures with her hands hoping Alya would finish. All Alya does is raise a brow so Lila has to finish “…a lesbian.”

“And that matters?” Alya puts one hand on her hip. “She’s still your friend isn’t she?”

Lila looks to the ground than back at Alya “yeah…” 

Trixx peeks out from Alya’s shirt “than get your butt in there and comfort your friend”. Alya pushes Lila inside before she could react. 

The bathroom is dark and quiet. Sabrina must have cried herself out. Alya clears her throat and knocks on the closed stall “Sabrina, are you in there?” 

Silence is on the other side. Alya presses against the door and it slowly creaks open. It was empty. Alya and Lila stare in dumbfounded, neither noticing a figure crawling down the wall behind them. “Did you stand in front of the wrong bathroom?” Alya asks only for a hiss to come from behind.

The bat creature jumps off the wall at the girls “LILA, WATCH OUT” Alya pushes her out of the way. Lila falls to the ground and the stall slams shut with Alya and the creature inside. 

Lila pulls herself up as Alya struggles with someone. Tutti flies beside her and they transform with an orange flash. 

Avvina kicks the door open “alright whatever you” her eyes widen. The bat figure is helping Alya to her feet. Alya has a blue glowing kiss mark on her cheek. Alya rolls her head so her hair parted and her glowing blue eyes stared at Avvina. Avvina gulped and found her feet frozen to the ground. The other turned to her and stepped towards her. Even in the darkness Avvina could make out the large bat wings with a claw on the tip. Her lips had a heart shape in the same glowing blue as her eyes.

“What did you do to her?” Avvina intends to shout but it comes out as a whimper. Why couldn’t she move?

“Just gave her a kiss” the creature cheekily purrs. Alya hisses and charges Avvina but the creature puts her hand up to make her stop. “Would you like one too?” she asks and her eyes glow brighter. Avvina is unable to look away. 

“Yes please” Avvina mutters and Lune tilts her chin up. She plants a kiss right on Avvina’s lips. 

Back in the classroom Pollen sits on Chloe’s desk in front of her “I am very disappointed in you Chloe”. Chloe flinched from both the motherly tone Pollen used and from touching her face with a napkin. 

“If that was so bad why didn’t you sting me” Chloe asked bitterly. 

Pollen ripped the napkin “BECAUSE YOU” she stopped to cool her anger. “Because I can’t be your logical thinker for the rest of your life, clearly that treatment wasn’t working after what you pulled today.”

“Treatment, am I some kind of patient now?” Chloe snaps nearly blowing Pollen out of the air. 

“I’m trying to make you a better person why can’t you see that!” Pollen cries back completely losing her cool. 

“MAYBE I CAN’T BE A BETTER PERSON EVER THINK OF THAT!” 

The only sound for a few seconds is Chloe’s heavy breathing. “WELL DID YOU?” Chloe demands with her voice painfully raw.

Tears prickle Pollen’s eyes “no Chloe I would never, I know deep down you are a sweet girl it’s just…”

“Just what” Chloe challenges and Pollen flinches. “I’m just some dumb blonde that can’t learn? I’m forever my mother’s mini me?” 

“You will learn Chloe, we’ll just try another method” Pollen tries to mimic Tikki’s positive tone. “We’ll have to wait for a cool off of course but then we’ll really work on being kind. I’ll make you feel like the queen you really are just you wait and see.”

“That won’t happen” Chloe says quietly and looks to the floor. 

Pollen still tries to smile “yes it can, you’re a super hero Chloe. You can do anything you set your mind to.”

“I don’t deserve to be queen I quit” Chloe grabs her comb from behind her sunglasses and pulls it out. 

When Pollen doesn’t speak Chloe looks up to see she was alone. The kwami was gone. Chloe opens her purse and takes out the box Pollen’s comb came in all those years ago. She puts the comb inside and sobs dryly. She would find Ladybug later and give her the miraculous. Ladybug would find Paris a better queen. 

Lune stood with Alya and Avvina in a triangle. The combined light from their eyes allowed more new features of Lune’s to be seen. Her skin was blue like a corpse starved of oxygen. And her fangs now slightly stuck out from her lips. “Do we strike now?” Avvina asks revealing she had fangs now.

“No” Lune walked across the bathroom yet her reflection didn’t show in any of the mirrors. She looked out the window watching Chloe leaving in her family limo. “We’ll take over the sound system, and build our army. Once we have every girl in town we’ll give her a night she’ll never forget” the mosquito bite on her hand burns. “Yes mother, I will capture Paon as well” she looks to her girls with an evil smirk “it might be the only boy I ever kiss.” They all laugh at that, the sounds like bats chittering in a cave.

Meanwhile Rose and Juleka walk side by side down the hallway. “Poor Sabrina, I’d hate to be outed like that” Rose says hugging her books close to her chest. “I mean it wasn’t a big deal with me being bi but did you see the look on her face? It must have been a deep secret. How could Chloe blurt it out like that?”

“Chloe’s just a mean person” Juleka mutters and something catches her eye. Rose keeps going about Chloe while Juleka notices a white butterfly fluttering to get her attention. It flies towards a door to the basement and wiggles underneath it.

“Hello my beautiful Juleka, do you read me?” Rose mimics someone in space. Juleka snaps her attention back to her and nods to whatever Rose had said. Rose grins and claps her hands together “gay is okay slumber party at my house”.

The butterfly sticks its head out and even though she wasn’t transformed Juleka can hear what it’s saying. “Hurry Juleka, we have something to show you”.

What the hell had those butterflies done now? “I’ll be right back, I forgot something in my locker” Juleka pulls out her best excuse as the two enter the art classroom. She turns tail and makes sure no one sees her enter the basement and follow the awaiting three white butterflies.

Rose pouts and sits at the back of the room with her book of song lyrics. She opens it to a half finished song called “glitter witch” and lets out a big sigh. “She’s always so distracted Miyuu, what if she isn’t interested in me anymore?” 

Miyuu sticks her head out of Rose’s shirt. “You asked the right kwami. I can sense feelings of love easily” she grins proudly. “And you have nothing to worry about. Your beautiful Juleka’s feelings haven’t changed. If anything they’re stronger” Miyuu’s horn sparked for a second. It fluttered down like glitter making Rose chuckle sadly.

“But she is hiding something” Rose slumped against the wall.

“Maybe she’s planning a surprise for you” Miyuu offered with a giggle. “Like cake or candy” her horn gives another spark and Rose taps before someone else sees. 

Rose has a small smile and tired eyes. “Maybe she is, just like we are” she turns the page and two tickets slide out. Miyuu and Rose giggle in excitement at the thought of Juleka’s reaction to it in the future. 

Later back in class Marinette stares at Alya’s empty seat. She snuck another text to her and got nothing. She wasn’t surprised Sabrina and Lila hadn’t returned after the thing with Chloe. But why had Alya not returned? Her fingers tapped her desk as she pondered. Her eyes widened as the thought dawned on her. Alya didn’t come back because there’s an akuma attack. 

She raises her hand “Miss Bustier can I please use the washroom?”

What harm is there in transforming in the locker room and doing a quick lap around the surrounding area. She checked her yo-yo communicator and noticed Chat’s call icon was lit up. Indicating the user was transformed. Ladybug is about to call him when something else caught her eye. The bee icon was black, what did that mean? 

“Ladybug” someone whispers getting Ladybug’s attention. She looks around and spots Alya sticking out from the bathroom.

“Alya what’s going on?” Ladybug jumped closer without thinking twice. Instantly she regrets it upon locking eyes with Alya’s new blue ones. 

“Come closer and I’ll tell you” Alya purrs with her eyes lighting up. 

Ladybug’s eyes are wide as she struggles to break eye contact. Her fists relax at her sides and her baby blue eyes darken to match Alya’s. “Okay…” Ladybug mutters stepping closer to the window and Alya’s evil expression. 

Chat’s baton suddenly extends into Alya’s jaw and smacks her against the window. She screeches like a bat and scrambles back inside. Ladybug blinks and shakes her head free. “Chat, what happened?” she asks as he lands beside her. 

“I’d have to guess an akuma was getting up in your head there” Chat playfully pokes his head. “Your eyes were going all WEEEE” he rolls his eyes around and Ladybug chuckles. 

“You’ll never stop her song in time” a poof of dark blue smoke makes both heroes’ jump back. A blue bat zips out of the window and makes a break for it. Ladybug throws her yo-yo at it but it dodges each time.

“Hurry after it” Ladybug orders and they give chase. Lune watches them from the window and nods to Avvina. Avvina transforms into an orange bat and follows after them. Ladybug and Chat follow the Alya bat into the largest news tower in town. 

“Here batty bat, bat, here batty bat, bat” Chat calls into the oddly empty building. He and Ladybug were back to back ready to strike the bat wherever it may be hiding. Ladybug opens the door to the recording studio and they step inside. 

Alya back in human form releases a screech that makes them both cover their ears. Avvina swoops down from the ceiling and tackles Chat. With vampire speed she slams rings around his wrists and ankles. “No Cataclysm for you kitty” she taunts slamming a final hoop around his waist pinning him to the wall. 

“What’s wrong Ladybug? Don’t you want a kiss?” Alya has pinned Ladybug down with Ladybug pushing Alya’s head back. Ladybug’s eyes are shut tight and she grunts blindly trying to get Alya off. 

“Come on Ladybug, open your eyes” Avvina walks over and grabs Ladybug’s arms. Ladybug tries turning her face away but Alya holds her still. Alya smirks and puckers her lips. Chat cries for her and struggles against his bindings. Desperate Ladybug wiggles her hip to tap her yo-yo.

A spotlight turns on over them making the vampires freeze. “Don’t you girls know it’s rude to kiss before the first date?” A familiar voice calls from behind it. Ladybugs yo-yo suddenly unleashes a high pitched sound that makes both vampires hiss and back away. 

Ladybug flips to her feet and smirks at the other who landed besides her “nice timing Rena”. 

“Rena” Alya does not believe her eyes. But sure enough Rena Rouge is standing next to Ladybug with a sneaky smile on her face. 

Avvina snarls and shows off her fangs. “What is going on here?” 

“We’ll find out later” Alya hisses into her ear “we just need to keep them occupied a little longer”. 

Meanwhile in the schools basement Juleka is pinching the bridge of her nose. Her butterflies had decorated the room with tree branches and little Halloween decorations like skulls and purple bats. Juleka would admit it was really cool and very much her style. But that wasn’t the point. “I told you guys three times we are not using the schools basement as a lair. We’re not a super villain we don’t need a lair”. Juleka pouted as seven white butterflies flew over to a window and flew together in a butterfly shape. 

“Yes that’s a good window but I can’t house you guys here, what if someone sees you?” The butterflies broke off and flew around her. “I know my closet isn’t big enough for everyone, but you have to let me find someplace instead of going off on your own”. Nooroo is sitting patiently on Juleka’s shoulder; he had an idea but wanted to let her finish first. 

Juleka pulls away from her argument with the butterflies at the sound of something coming from upstairs. She takes a step away and the butterflies swarm around her beating their wings frantically. The sound from above drowned out by the constant flapping. “What the heck are you guys doing?” Juleka cries putting her hands up to protect her face. 

“There’s some kind of evil siren call, they’re trying to save you from it” Nooroo cries into her ear.

“That means Rose is in danger” Juleka stands tall and throws her fist out “Nooroo wings flutter!” 

Purrde paws at a bouncy ball Kagami had left in her purse for her to play with. She would later deny ever playing with it but for now it was a good time waster. She pounces on it and rolls into the purse’s walls like a kitten with a ball of yarn. Her fun is interrupted by the sound of a violin coming from the loudspeaker. It was so eerie Purrde shivered. Suddenly Kagami stands up and begins walking. She would never leave class without an explanation. Purrde dares to peak out using a napkin for cover.

Kagami has a blank look on her face as does every other girl in her class. Purrde looks up to see a faint indigo smoke floating by the ceiling. Purrde crawls over to Kagami’s hand and bites it gently. Kagami has no reaction and comes to a stop in the gym. 

Lune steps out from the office and flies above the crowd of hypnotized girls. She leaves behind Mr. Damocles collapsed with a blue burn mark on his forehead. Her bow has a blue energy glowing off it taken directly from the poor principal. Purrde spots her and quickly hides in Kagami’s jacket. Purrde took a deep breath and concentrated. Her forehead glows “another knight has been corrupted”. Her mouth doesn’t move and a yellow sound wave poof from her body and disappears. Purrde could only hope Irrin would pick up the echolocation message and get Gorm into action. 

“That’s gluttony right?” Kim asks from the doorway with the other boys. “I thought gluttony was about overeating, what does this have to do with eating?”

Lune stops playing and eyes the crowd. She was missing two girls, but no matter she had enough. She kisses the back of her hands and lifts them above her head. “Alright ladies, feeding time” she throws her hands down and releases a blue sound wave. Once it hits the girls grow fangs and let out a bat like scream. 

“You just had to ask” Max deadpans as the girls turn towards them and snarl. 

Ivan acts as a human shield so the other boys could make a break for the exit. Two vampires tackle him and bite his shoulders. A blue glow comes from the wounds and Ivan cries out in pain. 

The court yard turns into a blood bath without any actual blood. Kim gets attacked by three girls who pin him down and bite. Max tries to fend them off with his backpack which only results in it being ripped from his hands and torn to shreds. Wayhem manages to evade attacks using his power of screaming loudly and jumping out a window.

“Remember ladies, no bites below the belt” Lune purrs walking through the chaos. Her gaze falls to her violin which had a meter of energy collected. They would have to drain the energy of every man in town in order to get the amount she needed. She licked her lips; she would have to make more vampires. 

“Okay I know I said I wanted an excuse out of class but this officially sucks” Nino says backing up until he’s against a wall. Three vampires closed in on him ready to sink their fangs into him. 

Chrysalid kicks open the door so suddenly Smash Mouth’s all star should have started playing. She points her cane and millions of white butterflies flood into the battlefield. They smack into the eyes of the vampires and push them away from their victims. Lune creates another shock wave that knocks them away from her. The two girls stare each other down. 

“Wouldn’t hurt to have another super on my side, let’s dance butterfly” Lune flares her wings out and Chrysalid pulls out her sword. Lune strikes first by swinging her violin like a baseball bat. Chrysalid blocks and Lune hooks her boot on Chrysalid’s ankle. She flips Chrysalid to the ground and tries to stab her with the bow part. Chrysalid dodges but gets a wing impaled trapping her to the ground. “Now look at me” Lune orders with a bloodthirsty grin.

“Fangs where I can see them” Paon Bleu calls from behind them. He has his bow and arrow ready and is pointing the arrow at her back. Lune sighs but leans away and moves her head to the sky. Her vampires were either lying on the ground beaten or had escaped as bats. She let out a tiny squeak to order them to start making more vampires.

Paon tries not to smile feeling like a police officer on TV. “Hands on your head and step away from the butterfly” he orders calmly. Lune slowly does as she’s told and gets off Chrysalid. Chrysalid quickly pulls out the bow and tosses it away. She gets to her feet careful not to look Lune in the eye. Paon takes a slow breath and aims his arrow at the black mark visible under her gloves. 

“The peacock and the butterfly working together” Lune says loud enough for Paon to hear clearly. She slowly turns her head to stare at him out of the corner of her eye. “Now where have I heard that one before?” 

Paon’s hands twitch and his mouth tightens. The arrow changes colour from icy blue to a dark crimson like blood in the moonlit ocean. Lune smirks and he fires it at her. Like an elf in a fairy tale she snatches the arrow mid-flight and puts it on her violin. She fires it back at him and it hits him directly in the chest. Paon’s eyes roll to the back of his head and he collapses. 

“PAON” Chrysalid cries running towards him. Lune creates a shock wave as Chrysalid passes and knocks her down. 

She makes the mistake of locking eyes with Lune “stay down” Lune orders with her eyes glowing. Chrysalid’s eyes copy the colour and she remains sitting down. Lune walks over to Paon and cradles his head in her hands. Her mosquito bite burns “don’t worry mother, he’s just unconscious”.

Chrysalid lifts her hands and holds a butterfly in them. “I won’t be able to help you, so I need you to find a hero on your own” she orders using her power to turn it lavender. It nervously flutters off before Lune can see it. 

Lune picks Paon up in the princess hold and kneels beside Chrysalid “now pucker up princess, we have work to do.”

Gorm pauses in the sky stunned at what he was seeing. He was in the air watching thousands of bats fly out of his school. He was gone for like one minute and everything had gone to heck. He snuck out of class because Irrin insisted he check around and he found nothing so he came back. And now his school was Transylvania. What the hell was his life?

A large golden bat breaks apart from the others and towards him. Gorm doesn’t think much of it until with a puff of smoke it transforms into a fanged Kagami. 

Kagami grabs him and they fall to the Earth below. A tree saves them from injury but Gorm is still winded by the time he hits dirt. Kagami chuckles and licks her lips “ever kissed a girl before Gorm?”

Gorm grabs her head to stop her head from getting any closer “something tells me I shouldn’t accept your kiss right now.”

“Aw are you shy little whale?” Kagami teases grabbing his wrist and tightens it to block his blood flow. His arm falls asleep and can’t keep her away. She falls on top of his chest and lingers right by his nose. “You know what happens when I find a target? I strike without fail.” 

Gorm gulped and his cheeks warmed up. “That’s uh…nice” he mutters and Kagami smashes their lips together. Gorm whimpers and struggles to get out of her iron grip. She was stealing energy from him; Gorm noticed his limbs growing heavy. He had to get out of this. His guitar was just out of reach. He had to think fast. His eyes narrowed, he had one last resort that he never wanted to use. Oh god, please don’t remember this.

Gorm gathers his saliva and spits it into Kagami’s mouth. Kagami’s eyes snap open and she rears back to cough it out. Her eyes flash and she grabs his neck “You’re going to pay for that you”

CLANG 

A shield slams into Kagami knocking her off Gorm and across the grass. It bounces off a tree than back into Carapace’s hands. He and Jade run over to Gorm and help him up. “Looks like we’re just in time, you okay frostbite?”

“I’m fine, my life is just over” Gorm states picking up his guitar. Kagami wipes her mouth and three more vampires fly down behind her. 

“Oh I do not like that” Jade blurts and his scarves dive to the ground “Pest patrol!” 

A grasshopper suddenly grows to the size of a horse. Jade’s scarves grab the boys and throw them on top of it. The vampires charge them but the grasshopper jumps away before they can attack. They screech and change into bats to chase after them. 

“We need to find where the vampires are taking this energy. Jade, follow those bats” Carapace orders pointing to a colony of bats flying somewhere with mouths glowing with blue energy. A bat dive bombs them and they have to duck to avoid it. “Gorm, time to make some music” Carapace holds up his shield to avoid another bat’s fangs. 

Gorm sits at the back of the grasshopper and plays a loud note. Water springs from the strings and changes into ice bullets that he fires at the bats. 

Ladybug takes a hard hit to the jaw and flies into the wall. Rena flops besides her holding her head. Alya and Avvina bump fists with fang filled grins. “Okay we need a plan” Ladybug groans looking over to Rena. Rena’s eyes were purple then she blinks and they’re back to normal. 

Avvina moves so fast it’s like she teleported in front of Ladybug. “Fangs for the work out but now we need to go. Come Ladybug” Avvina’s eyes glowed and her hand forced Ladybug to look.

“Oh no you don’t” Rena cries launching into a kick towards Avvina’s head. She’s stopped by Alya catching the leg and throwing her to the ground. A sneer on her face that makes Rena gulp. 

“Come on, give me some self-love” Alya says throwing herself on top of Rena. She tries to kiss only for Rena to grab her with her legs and flip them over. Alya then does the same trick and they’re rolling around on the floor. 

Ladybug falls back under Avvina’s spell and flops helpless on the floor. “No LADYBUG” Chat cries wiggling in the hoops. In good news Avvina is always one for drama and decides to gloat instead of going for the kill. Chat looks down at the hoops trying to calculate which one to cataclysm and still be able to fight. His thoughts are interrupted by Plagg’s. 

Normally Plagg just gave him intrusive thoughts about cheese or dark humour. But this time it was a certain image along with some words. Chat closes his eyes and concentrates.

“Aw the kitty doesn’t want to see his lady kiss another woman” Avvina coos stroking Ladybug’s hair. 

Chat reopens his eyes to reveal they were completely black.

“BLACK SAND”

Chat’s body blurs and black sand falls to the floor. The rings fall off his body as it had turned into sand they couldn’t hold onto. His body solidifies and he steps towards Avvina. Avvina snarls and fires more hoops at him. 

Like something out of a horror movie Chat’s body shifts to the left than the right dodging the hoops. Any that do hit only pass through him. His body healed itself after each attack. In seconds he’s right in front of Avvina and has grabbed her shoulders. She can’t even scream before he’s kneed her in the gut and she’s thrown across the room. 

Alya’s eyes widen as he turns to her with his eyes still black. She jumps off Rena and starts swinging wild claws. Each slides right by him throwing black particles of sand about. Chat’s entire body turns black and the sand moves behind Alya. Chat reforms and grabs Alya by the shoulders. He knees her hard in the tailbone and throws her into the wall hard enough to break a hole through it. The vampires groan and Avvina has enough strength left to grab Alya and transform into a giant orange bat. They escape out the hole.

Chat hisses at them than collapses to his knees. The black left his eyes and he coughed “did you guys see that?” 

Ladybug blinks and rubs her head “see what?” Chat’s ears droop and he almost tears up.

“Rena, please tell me you recorded that” Chat pleads to her. He had felt so epic he had to know if Ladybug thought the same. His ring suddenly beeps and he looks at it. It went from five paws to two paws in seconds. “What the…did I break it?” Chat cries tapping the ring. 

“Black sand it pretty powerful, I’m surprised you didn’t change back immediately” Rena explains. “Plagg must really love you” she coos with the most evil little grin. 

Ladybug frowned; the Rena she knew wouldn’t be this calm after witnessing a new power. While Chat was pleading with her to tell Ladybug how cool he looked Ladybug checks her yo-yo. Her suspicions are confirmed discovering Rena’s call icon wasn’t lit up. 

“You’re not Rena” Ladybug snaps stepping between the two. Rena put her hands up in surrender as Ladybug shows her the yo-yo screen “who are you?” 

Rena sighs and her eyes turn purple “alright you got me”. She’s covered in an orange light and shrinks. When it fades all that’s left is Trixx with his nubs behind his back. 

“Rena was a kwami this whole time?” Chat cries.

“No this is Rena’s kwami” Ladybug explains than frowns at the kwami “since when could you shape shift into Rena? And where is Rena?”

Trixx looks to the hole in the building for a split second “she’s around; she’s just uh…a little batty at the moment”.

Chat walks over to the hole and peeks outside “oh no” he mutters just loud enough for Ladybug to hear. 

“What is it Chat?”

“Well uh…do you want the good news or the bat news?” Chat steps aside for Ladybug and Trixx to see. Down below there is thousands of bats flew above the buildings. Each one’s mouth was glowing with a blue energy taken from a man or boy.

“Where are they going?” Ladybug asks using her yo-yo to zoom in on them. 

“To the Bourgeois hotel” Trixx states making both of them look over to him in confusion. “I was around when the bad gal was explaining her plan, we have to stop her.” He’s surrounded in a light and expands into Rena Rouge again. “Let’s go Ladybug” he orders using Rena’s voice. 

Chat frowns as his ring gives its final warning “I’ll catch up as soon as I can”. 

“See you soon Chaton” Ladybug swings her yo-yo to the closest building. Chat just has such a dumb look on his face as she swings away. Trixx smirks and flies off after Ladybug. 

Chloe sits on the floor in her room, her back against the wall. Pollen’s box is shoved under her couch. She has the bell from Sabrina’s Chat Noir costume in her hands. Her door opens and Jean steps in holding a mug of hot chocolate. It had a bunch of whipped cream with little unicorn marshmallows on it. He hands her the cup and sits beside her. Chloe takes a sip that burns her tongue and sets it down beside her “I really messed up today Jean”. 

“You certainly did” Jean agrees as a flash of lighting happens outside. It had really started to storm suddenly. “You don’t ask for unicorn hot chocolate unless something serious has happened” he explains with a warm smile. 

“I hurt Sabrina…I spilled our sister secret” Chloe admits hugging her knees to her chest. 

“That’s the biggest secret she ever told you, you have truly destroyed her trust” Jean says watching Chloe’s face turn red. 

“I know that Jean! Tell me how to fix it!” she cries throwing her fists down and almost knocking the hot chocolate over. 

“I don’t think you can” Jean pulls out a napkin and cleans up some of the liquid that spilled. “It might be best for both of you to move on”.

“But I don’t want to move on” Chloe whines squeezing the bell to her chest “she’s my Chat Noir”. 

A clap of thunder rattles the room and it plunges into darkness. Jean puts his hand on Chloe’s shoulder “the storm must have cut the power; I will find you a candle”. Chloe wants him to stay but her mouth doesn’t work in time. The door closes behind him leaving her alone with nothing but her phone for a light. 

“Poor little girl, all alone” a familiar voice sings in the darkness. Chloe gulps as a pair of blue eyes appear on her balcony. The figure was upside down with two others standing on its sides. The figure lands on their feet and pushes the doors open. A flash of lightning reveals they are Chrysalid, Avvina and Lune Bat. Chrysalid and Licorne snarl and Lune calmly puts her hands up “go get Paon into position. I want her all to myself.”

“I’m not a piece of meat you know” Chloe snaps trying to use meanness to cover her fear. It doesn’t really work. 

Chrysalid and Avvina turn into bats and fly towards the roof. Lune chuckles and her eyes flash “I’m going to enjoy this”. She flicks her hands out and claws spring out. Chloe yelps as Lune opens her mouth and releases a sound wave that blows past her and rips her furniture apart. 

Chloe pulls her hand away from her face and gasps at the crimson. Some wood had cut her forehead leaving an ugly mark across her cheek. “What did I ever do to you?” Chloe cries.

“Spilled my sister secret for one” Lune hisses grabbing a broken chair and throwing it at Chloe. Chloe gets out of the way and crawls under her overturned bed. Lune lifted it with one hand and smacks her across the face with her violin. “Humiliated, belittled, and used me for another” Lune grabs Chloe’s ponytail and throws her against the glass door to the balcony. 

Chloe blinks away her double vision of Lune approaching “Sabrina?” 

“Hey Chloe” Lune purrs spreading her wings. She bends low and charges. Chloe yelps and protects her face. A flash of lighting from outside reflects off the bell in her hand creating a flash. Lune covers her eyes with a hiss and retreats into the darkness. 

Chloe gulps and crawls under the furniture before Lune can recover. “Always resorting to dumb luck, you wouldn’t have anything if it wasn’t for me” Lune cries floating above the broken furniture. She kicks a random part and Chloe bites down a scream. “Your perfect grades, your fashion, your overblown ego, it all falls apart without me!” Lune smashes the bed and the kwami box clatters over to Chloe’s closet. 

“You know what’s funny?” Lune asks walking past Chloe’s hiding spot. “I always thought I was just a lackey, someone who would never make a difference. But I’m closer to my goal than anyone else. I’m going to bring back mother mosquito, and I’m going to destroy your boyfriend doing so.”

“Paon” Chloe blurts before she can stop herself. One of Lune’s ears twitches and she grins.

She pulls up the furniture exposing Chloe “oops did I spell our sister secret?” She jokes darkly. She grabs Chloe by the arm and pulls her up “you aren’t even worth joining my vampires, I’ll drain you dry!”

Chloe tightens her grip on the bell “then do it, but let me speak first” she commands. Lune chuckles and throws her aside. Chloe cries out as she slams into a mirror and it shatters. 

“Then speak your majesty” Lune sneers putting one hand on her hip. 

Chloe looks at her broken reflection and spies Pollen’s box on the other side of the room. She takes a shaky breath and gets to her feet. She didn’t deserve a miraculous but she needed to get Sabrina back to her senses. The Queen would take the stage one last time. 

“Well…I should have expected you would become the villain to succeed. You were always the smart one” she starts and Lune laughs.

“Do you think flattery will save you?” 

No but it will stall you. “That’s why it’s ridiculous that you’re doing what a mosquito bite tells you to do. How is this any different than obeying me?” Chloe points to the bite mark visible from Lune’s glowing eyes. 

Lune’s eyes widen and she stares at the bite. Chloe takes a cautious step towards the box. “That’s what this mosquito is, isn’t she? A big bossy lady that tells you what to do and does nothing for you in return” she takes another step. The bite burns and Lune slaps her hand over it. “So long as you listen to her you’re still a lackey. You’re stronger than that Sabrina!” Chloe cries risking a glance towards the box. She just had three more steps. 

Lune’s violin beeps and she looks at it to see the meter was fully charged. The bite burns harder than before and she hisses in pain. She snaps her head over to Chloe making the girl jump “I know what you’re doing; you’re trying to turn me against her.” Lune floats towards Chloe and makes her back up “You think she’s anything like you? Mosquito will let me rule Paris as I please. All you’ve ever done is thrown me under your feet!” 

“I’m sorry Sabrina” Chloe whimpers taking a step towards Lune. “For everything I’ve done, I convinced myself you could take it. And I was wrong, I should never have hurt you the way I did”.

Lune snarls and lightning strikes behind her. “LIAR, YOU ARE NEVER SORRY” a weak sound wave fires from her mouth and blows Chloe back. 

“I am this time” Chloe insists with shaky hands. “I promise after this I will never hurt you again, no matter how much it hurts me!”

Her vision is suddenly tinted with lavender. Chloe looks to the bell in her hand as smoke covers her. 

“I’m going to save you Sabrina, I promise”

“This wind is ridiculous” Ladybug cries as her regular swinging fails and she crashes into Trixx. They come to a stop on the ground and Trixx falls to his knees.  
His form glitches twice “I can’t keep this up much longer” he has to yell over the wind.

Ladybug looks up in time to see lightning flash over the Bourgeois hotel. The bats had all gathered in a swarm above it with a blue orb in the middle generating lightning. “We’re almost there, come on Rena-Trixx” Ladybug helps Trixx up and they run towards the front doors. 

Chrysalid and Avvina are playing the hand slap game bored while guarding Paon. He’s tied up against a pole meant for volleyball. Their game in interrupted by glass breaking and Lune crashing into the empty pool. They pull out their weapons and hiss at the blinding golden light from the attacker.

The light fades revealing Chloe wearing a gold skin tight suit. A fake cat tail and a pair of cute little cat ears on top of her head. Both her hands and her feet have slightly poofy white paws. She has a golden mask that gives her blue cat slit eyes and a large bell hung around her neck. “Paris’s new champion” she yells over the wind. She puts her hands like a cat pawing at yarn “KITTY BELL, MEOW!”

Chrysalid slaps her forehead and Avvina burst out laughing. “Is that the best a butterfly can do on its own? It’s so cute, what are you going to do kitten? Bat me with your little claws?” Avvina taunts in a cooing voice.

Chrysalid lifts her sword and holds it in front of her face “I may not control the butterfly that made you but I can take it away.”

Suddenly a giant grasshopper falls from the sky and crushes her into the ground. Jade and the others jump off and get into fighting poses. “Yay we made it” Jade looks back seeing Chrysalid “oh no we stepped on someone!” He moves the grasshopper off and shakes her gently but Chrysalid is out cold. 

“We’ll forgive you” Kitty Bell calls and pulls out a cat toy attached to a stick. 

Ladybug and Trixx kick open the door and run into the battlefield. “We’re here, where’s Lune?” Ladybug asks swinging her yo-yo to a red blur. 

Lune recovers from her hit and takes to the sky. She releases a loud squeak that causes a bunch bats to break apart and swarm the hero’s. Ladybug Carapace and Trixx go back to back hitting the bats with a series of punches and kicks. 

Avvina is cut off from getting to Ladybug by Gorm “so would this make you a vul-pire or a vam-ture?”

“It makes me capable of kicking your butt” Avvina snaps throwing a hoop his way. Gorm ducks the first one and throws his guitar in front of his face against the next one. It wraps around the guitar making it unable to play. “Ha out of luck fish breath” Avvina teases going for the kill.

Gorm smacks her with the guitar across the face “not quite” he jokes

She wipes some blood from her nose “that’s it ALL” she’s cut off by the grasshopper grabbing her by the fluff on her neck.

“Sorry, can’t always get what you want” Jade teases from the grasshopper’s back. Avvina hisses and even tries changing into a bat but the grasshopper holds strong. 

“That butterfly must have been desperate to pick you” Lune growls as the girls weapons lock. 

“Not going to lie, it probably was” Kitty shrugs and her tail snakes around Lune’s leg. It pulls her to the ground and Kitty puts her padded foot on Lune’s chest “but I don’t care how silly I look if it means it will stop you”. She signals to Ladybug by waving her toy. Lune looks over to see Ladybug, Trixx, and Carapace over by Paon.

“Oh no they don’t” Lune grabs Kitty’s leg and throws her off. Lune holds her violin in its archery position only for Kitty to jump on her from behind.

Ladybug checks her scan of yo-yo and frowns seeing the corruption level was at two percent. Was it from whatever had knocked him out or did Paon have a forbidden snack?   
Ladybug shakes her head of those thoughts and puts her yo-yo on his chest. It warms and Paon’s eyes shoot open. He turns to the ground and coughs a couple times. He looks back to the group with a shaky smile “so word of advice, don’t get hit by your own soul strike.” The others chuckle as he sits up and looks over the battle field. 

“Get off me you brat” Lune snaps trying to throw Kitty off her head. 

“Not happening” Kitty hisses showing off the most adorable kitten fangs. She makes a few more cat noises as they wrestle to the ground. 

“Is that Chloe?” Paon asks covering his mouth with the back of his hand. It’s hard to hide the smile on his face, she looked so ridiculous (and adorable). 

Lune finally throws Kitty off and she flips over to her feet before she hit the ground. “Drain them all dry, drain them all dry!” Lune fires a gigantic sound wave towards the bats still protecting the orb. They leave it and swarm the heroes who all race to Carapace. 

“Shell-ter” Carapace creates a shield that creates a full bubble around everyone.

“No, Hoppy” Jade cries upon seeing his grasshopper was on the other side. It waves sadly than bats bite into it and it vanishes. Avvina joins the swarm and grabs on to the bubble.   
Thousands of bats bite and claw at the shield. Their efforts rewarded by tiny cracks appearing in the shield “Lady-dude I can’t hold this much longer” Carapace cries. 

“Lucky Charm” Ladybug throws her yo-yo up and her lucky charm falls into her hand. Or did her power just glitch? Ladybug holds up a near identical yo-yo “and just what am I supposed to do with this?”

Kitty eyes the yo-yo and snatches it from Ladybug’s hands. “I think I know what to do, can you guys give me cover?”

“Sure on one condition” Trixx says taking Gorm’s wrist watch and turning on the camera part. “Could you do the meow thing one more time for the camera?” 

“What’s wrong with your phone?” Carapace blurts and Trixx flinches.

“I broke it” he states not looking at Carapace. Alya may have lost most footage for today but she’ll have something amusing for her blog later. 

Kitty Bell sighs and strikes her pose “KITTY BELL, MEOW!” 

Ladybug giggles, Trixx has the most evil of grins. Carapace bites his tongue not to laugh, Jade laughs so hard his scarves have to catch him from falling over. Gorm smirks and Paon just falls over not being able to handle how cute she looked. 

Kitty rolls her eyes “okay now here’s the plan”. 

Lune floats above the bubble and begins to play her violin. The orb above drains into her strings and light it up. The bats break the shield and Lune readies her arrow to fire. Her eyes watch Carapace and Gorm making a run for it. She looks away and spies Paon’s unmistakable feathers. She’s about to fire when she sees the feathers again. “Wait…what?” 

Dozens of every hero start pouring out of the bubble and away from the bats. Trixx grins running alongside a fake Rena. “Ha good luck finding the real ones” he’s then tackled by vampire Alya. 

“I don’t like copy cats” Alya grows and slams her lips against Trixx’s cheek. 

Trixx yelps and struggles to pull her off “no Alya…bad idea” his limbs go limp and he faints.

The real Carapace stops in his tracks seeing his girlfriend making out with Rena. “Oh wow” He’s than tackled by like six vampires that yank his hood off and touch their lips to whatever skin they could latch onto. 

The rest of the illusions disappear and Lune spies the real Paon running away. They lock eyes and she pulls the strings back “look alive little boy, you’re about to be reborn.”   
Kitty pounces on her from behind and the arrow shoots up into the sky. They roll to the ground and the violin gets knocked away from her grasp. The arrow explodes into an electrical masterpiece of a storm. Yet Paon stands still, his eyes wide like he was trapped in his head.

Kitty grabs her weapon and uses the string to tie Lune’s wings together. “Sabrina, you’re going to listen to me” Kitty whispers grabbing Lune’s arms. Lune glares at her and Kitty glares right back. “What I did today was heartless, stupid and idiotic. I don’t deserve to be your friend and don’t deserve to be the hero who saves the day.”

Ladybug uses the sun chairs for cover as she army crawls over to Lune and Kitty. She wasn’t the biggest fan of following someone else’s plan, especially Chloe’s. But this one sounded crazy enough to work. And if it didn’t then she would be close enough to get Lune’s mosquito bite regardless. 

A bat notices her bright red costume and charges towards her. Jade grabs it out of the air with his scarves and it transforms back into a vampire. His scarves can’t adjust the weight in time and it locks lips with him. Ladybug hears his muffled pleas for her to go and resumes her crawl. 

Kitty sits Lune up and points to the bell on her neck. “Chrysalid didn’t pick my costume, I did. And you know why I chose something so ridiculous?” Lune doesn’t reply but her eyes stop glowing. “Because I realised holding that bell that I had it all wrong. You are not my Chat Noir.”

Lune’s eyes wobbled and Kitty quickly continues “you’re my Ladybug, and I’m your Chat Noir”.

The mosquito bite burns but Lune ignores it “what?” she whispers.

“I’m your Chat Noir” Kitty repeats. “I’m the one that destroys everything I touch, even the things I want to keep close. And you, you’re Ladybug. You build new friendships, you make the best cookies, you care about everyone, you even have the super hero team at your back.” Kitty laughs at the fact that Sabrina was almost everything she wanted to be.

Gorm cries out as he’s overpowered by Kagami and Rose. Kagami learned her lesson and instead kisses his neck while Rose goes for the forehead. His screams make Lune’s ear twitch. 

Kitty pulls out the yo-yo from her pocket “I want to keep being your Chat Noir…will you be my Ladybug?” 

Lune gently takes the yo-yo from Kitty, Kitty softly smiles and her eyes wobble. 

“No” Lune chucks the yo-yo away. 

Kitty’s smile shatters and Ladybug throws her yo-yo at the bite. Lune catches it before it could and holds it in her bite free hand. “I am not Chat Noir or Ladybug” Lune announces standing tall and snapping the cat toy in two. She smirks and places the yo-yo over her black bite.

The poison is sucked out and the bats turn back into girls and women. Alya collapses on Trixx back in Kwami form unintentionally protecting him from discovery. Kagami faints on top of Gorm and Rose rolls to the side also unconscious. Lune takes to the air and her body seems to glow as the storm dissolves into a beautiful evening. 

“I am Lune Bat” 

She releases the yo-yo which skids back to a stunned Ladybug. Man she wished she heard that conversation. Still she has a clean up to do and activates her miraculous ladybug. The girls are placed back to where they were before the attack. The boy’s energy is returned and they get off the floor groaning or cheering weakly. Chloe’s room is placed back in order with Pollen’s box now sitting on the table. 

Kitty smiles sadly and the butterfly leaves her bell. She turns back into Chloe and the butterfly zips over to Chrysalid like a toddler excited to tell mom it did a good. Lune lands gently and gives Chloe a gentle smile but nothing more. She walks towards Gorm and Jade who both fuss over her asking if she’s okay.

“LUNE” Licorne shouts racing in from wherever she woke up and jump hugging her. Raion is right behind her, although she tries to play it off as if she tripped into it. 

“Group hug” Jade cries using his scarves to scoop every knight together in a big hug around Lune. Chloe’s eyes linger on Lune’s face grinning ear to ear as she walks to the door and closes it behind her. 

Later that night Chloe sits alone in her room staring at Pollen’s box. She takes a deep breath and opens it. Pollen’s light surrounds her reminding her of the first time it happened and her eyes almost tear up again. When Pollen settles in front of her Chloe picks up the comb and hides away the paper with her speech. 

“I don’t know why fate chose me to be Queen Bee, I am a terrible awful queen…but I am the one Paris has and a queen can’t give up” she holds out her hand and Pollen lands on it. “Pollen, will you help me be a better queen?” 

Pollen smiles and nods her head “of course my queen”.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So fun fact, Chloe and Sabrina's fight is actually based off one I had with my ex best friend in middle school. And don't feel pity because I was Chloe in that situation.   
> Maybe that's why I was so excited to hear of a possible redemption for Chloe upon receiving the bee miraculous. I thought I would see myself, the bully, learn how horrible they've been and go through an ark to fix that. When I was that age it would have meant everything to see someone else go through that rather than every bully character be written as "unchangeable jerk that gets bested by protagonist every episode".   
> But as far as I'm concerned the show has failed me in that regard, so I decided to try and write it myself.


End file.
